Good Enough
by Cissnei69
Summary: How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru.
1. Chapter 1

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**The Intervention of the Fates**

Reincarnation… This is a concept of life that he always thought to be stupid. Why give humans a second, third or fourth chance in life? They were all the same, always destroying and never being content with what they had. Always after power, that's what those greedy creatures wanted and the moment he watched the only human he came to respect (for his father and creator couldn't be considerate human, he was more like a demi-god in his and his siblings eyes) be killed by her best friend, her _brother_ in all but blood, because of power, Kurama knew that if he came to be free, he would destroy the mankind before they could make more damage.

Maybe he should hate his container too, that naïve human girl who was always looking for a better future and always smiling even if life wasn't very fair to her. The little girl that looked at him – _him!_ – for comfort even if he had been the reason for her misfortune, he had killed her parents, she was hated and mistreated by her village because she was his _jailer_, because she had him _sealed_ in her body.

He had two containers before her and he had hated them. And because of some joke of fate, his little blonde haired container had been related to all of them. The first had been Mito Uzumaki, she just sealed him and hated him without even trying to talk to him and trying to understand why he had attacked her husband, but what he would do? At first he had been controlled by that blasted Madara Uchiha and his cursed eyes; then came her husband with his power to bend nature to retain his power and control him.

Now that he thought about it… Most of his misfortunes had been caused by the Uchihas, the descendants of his father oldest son. He would have killed them all if Itachi Uchiha hadn't already massacred his clan, though it would have been better if the boy hadn't left his young brother alive. The same boy who was the reason he was losing the only one, beside his father, who smiled at him, happy to see him.

His second container was the mother of his little annoying ball of sunshine. Kushina Uzumaki. But she followed the steps of her great-aunt and used the chains made by her special chakra (a chakra inherited from the blood of the second son of his father that run in the veins of the Uzumaki Clan) to imprison him in the confines of her mind and soul, and again, without even trying to talk to him and making him hate humans more and more. In life, his father had so much hope to those creatures, but it seemed that his will and teachings had been lost in time.

When Kushina gave birth, he was ripped from her body by… Guess who?

An Uchiha. And not just any Uchiha, it was one claiming to be Madara. Though their aura was similar, he knew that the man hadn't been the same, but even if he wasn't the man, he still hated that orange masked human for controlling him like his possible ancestral did. He fought, not waiting to be sealed again and, as much he didn't liked to remember it, tried to kill the little baby that would be his third container.

The Fourth Hokage, the leader of village, sold his soul to the Death God so he could seal him in kis own newborn daughter, thinking like a naïve child for he believed that she would be treated like a hero. Kushina didn't survive and die moments after her husband, having time to just say the name of her child.

Narumi Uzumaki, his third container and the only who weren't informed about her burden and the only one of his containers that had to surfer because of it since the village knew that she was a Jinchuriki, a human sacrifice.

Narumi just found out about the true when she was four years old, having been beating by mob and waking up in her mindscape, in front of him to be more precise. Different from what he thought she would do, the little girl started to cry, but not because she was in the presence of a monster or because she found out that her own father had condemned her to a life of hatred. But because she was _sad_ for _him_, because she too would have been angry, she too would have attacked the village if she had been made a prisoner for something she hadn't control over and had been passed from container to container without choice.

In that moment, Kurama didn't saw just a little blonde haired girl with whiskers in her cheeks and azure eyes, he saw his father. The Sage turned God… The man whose heart and compassion had brought peace for this land called Elemental Nations even if for a short period of time.

"I'm dying…" His red eyes stared at the petit twelve-years old girl who was laying in front of his cage with a hole in her chest in the place that Uchiha boy had attacked her. Even in her mindscape, she was still bleeding.

Kurama snorted.

"Oh? I didn't even notice."

She hummed while turning her face in his direction with a smile, her eyes looking like they were losing it focus and it made his heart ache. He was losing her.

"What about you?"

"Me?"

"What will happen to you now that I'm dying? Will you be free? Will you be alright?" Kurama shook his head exasperated.

"Kit, you're dying… But you want to know if I'll be free and fine?" She grinned, that same grin she gave when she was thinking about a prank or how to annoy her teachers. And with those whiskers in her face… No wonder the villagers looked at her like she was his human form (like he even had one! Ha!), she looked like a fox when she did it.

"So?"

"I'll die with you. Your father made a deal with the Shinigami, gaki. Our souls are connected for all eternity."

Tears formed in her eyes making him want to hit his head at something.

"I'm so sorry."

"Kit, really! Can't you just act like a normal human?"

Her depressed state got extremely exaggerated and her lips started to tremble. "No! I'm really sorry. So sorry! Not even in death I can be normal!" Kurama groaned.

"Ok, you're special! Very special and special humans aren't normal! Just… Just stop to cry. Please, please! I implore!" And as if she had never started to cry, her face illuminated in question of seconds and her grin was back to her face.

_Why me?_ Kurama thought with a sigh.

"Ok!" He really, _really_, wanted to hit his head at something. "Hey Kurama…?"

Turning his attention back to her face, he felt sick when he saw blood dripping from her mouth and how her beautiful sun kissed skin was turning pale at each second. The fact of something was forming beside her didn't make him feel better for it looked too much like the Shinigami for his liking.

"Don't leave me, ok? I… I never had parents or someone to love me… And you had been with me since I was just, what? A few hours old? I would be lost without you." She grinned sadly as she saw the translucent form of the Shinigami in all his demonic glory. It was much large than an average human, possessing long, shaggy white hair, from which two red horns protrude, and dark greyish blue-colored skin. It was draped in a large white garment and carried a set of prayers beads. "Well, hello there, Shinigami. Having a good day?"

Kurama groaned even if he wanted to cry. The girl was in the presence of the _God of Death_ and the first thing she did was say _hello _and ask if the _God of Death_ was having a _good day_? Was she crazy?

Kurama snorted at this thought. Whom he wanted to fool? She was Narumi Uzumaki; the Number One Hyperactive, Knucklehead Ninja of Konoha. Of course she would talk to the Shinigami as if they were old friends.

"Narumi Uzumaki."

The Nine Tailed Fox stared at the god with wide eyes. He had seen the god in action before and it never, _never_, talked to the person whose soul he came to collect.

"This wasn't your time, but the Fates wanted otherwise." Kurama saw Narumi blink her eyes slowly with a little of annoyance. Not because someone planned her death before her time, but because she had always insisted that fate didn't exist, she had beating that Hyuuga boy to teach him that his life wasn't controlled by fate. Now came the Shinigami and it told her that there wasn't one fate, but more than one.

"You have got to be kidding me…" she murmured under her breath.

"Your destiny is not in this world anymore, Child of the Prophecy… The Rikudo Sennin will not let his heir, descendent and the vessel of the soul of his second son surfer anymore." Kurama stopped breathing at that moment.

Rikudo Sennin? Did he mean the Sage of Six Paths? His father…?

Narumi was his heir? Narumi was the reincarnation of Asura?

"Be grateful child for you have another chance of a happy life. Of showing your true value to the world and realize your purpose in life."

Kurama saw Narumi close her eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could move, a flash of light blinded him for a moment before he blacked out for the first time in years. But before it, he felt happy. Because, for the first time in his long existence, reincarnation wasn't an aspect so annoying anymore for it gave Naru a chance of being truly happy.

**00**

Neji had been right all along.

Fate did exist.

Maybe if she had the opportunity to see him again, she would apologize. If not, she would pray that the next time she died, truly died, that he wouldn't hunt her down in the afterlife just to say "Ha! I told you!"; she really didn't want to see the Hyuuga prodigy looking at her with that cocky smirk of his that said "I'm better than you". She had worked so hard to make him stop obsessing over fate.

After her encounter with Shinigami, she didn't know how much time passed, but when she finally could understand what was going on; Narumi noted that she was baby. A frail and easy to kill baby. To make things worse, she couldn't even understand on single word that came from the mouth of the woman who was taking care of her, Narumi didn't know if she blamed in her baby mind or if it was another language all together, what was impossible since there was just one language at the Elemental Nations.

So yeah, it was all her baby mind fault.

The woman always called her by a strange word. Araidune or something or other, she didn't know what it meant, but Narumi concluded that it was her new name. She just came to understand both the name and who the woman was after a few months. The name was Ariadnê and the woman was her beautiful mother, Sally Jackson. Kurama had been the one to make it possible since his presence accelerated the formation of her brain and helped her memorize, understand and do things that would have taken years to a normal child. Good thing too, because if it wasn't for him, she would never remember her father face.

He had visited when she was just six months or so she thought. He was really handsome, with dark hair like hers, sea-green eyes (Narumi _really_ hoped she had the same eyes as his) and when he looked at her, he smiled before taking her in his arms. Narumi cried that day because she felt wanted; she felt like he was happy that she had been born and it made her grab his clothes with all the strength her baby body had. She had never felt like this. The matrons from the orphanage had ignored her from what Kurama said, he had been the one to make sure she didn't die of hungry and thirsty, and after she had been kicked out of the orphanage and lived in the streets, she had to fend for herself, to comfort herself till she found out about Kurama.

Narumi hadn't wanted her father to leave that day, he looked at her as if he would never have the opportunity to see her and touch her like that again. It broke her heart.

Kurama said that her father was a coward. She just ignored him, not waiting to fight, but she still wanted to know why her father couldn't stay and why he was abandoning her and her mother. When he just disappeared she thought: Oh my Kami, there's chakra here!

But Kurama had to ruin her happiness and said that her father hadn't used Chakra, that no one but the two of them had chakra in that place that the fox was sure to be another dimension. Her father had used some other kind of energy, almost godly, he had said. Stay away from him, the fox then said, he's too dangerous, _he isn't human_!

Narumi could care less if her father was a monster in disguise or the God of Death from this dimension, he was her father and she loved him.

Sally Jackson was everything she always wanted in a mother, hardworking and caring. Always smiling at her and looking at her with love in her eyes. Sally was really proud but surprised when her first word had been _"Papa"_ (Not that the woman would ever know that she had done so in purpose) and then she said _"Mama"_ followed by _"Fluffy"_. The last one she said to annoy Kurama.

He was fluffy and he knew it, it didn't matter how many times he denied it.

The next years passed in a blink of eyes and when Narumi saw it, she was already five years old and considered a genius and prodigy by everyone that knew her, even her mother. She didn't want to go to school and be with little kids, so convinced her mother that she could be homeschooled. The teachers being paid with the money of some precious jewels she had found… Nah, no. The true was that she saw three thieves laughing about the bank that they had just assaulted and beat them all before taking them to the police (No one saw her of course) and borrowed part of what they had stolen, she would find a way to pay the bank back later.

It took her four weeks of using her ultimate puppy dogs eyes jutsu to make her mother use the Money (It had been the first time in her life that someone resisted her puppy dog eyes jutsu!). Hell, she didn't even remember what excuse she used to convince her mother that the money was a gift of the gods… Though she did implore for forgiveness after that, she didn't want a god after her head because she used them as an excuse. And this place had a big amount of gods and religions compared to her old world that just had the Shinto.

"Aria! Are you ready to go?" She heard her mother ask with a smile as she raised her head from the book she was trying to read.

Narumi really needed to stop of thinking of herself as… Well, as Narumi. She was now Ariadnê Elysia Jackson (She died with a lightning technique making a hole in her chest and her mother chose a middle name that meant "person struck by lightning" in Greek. Really, she blamed those old hags of the Fates for it).

Narumi nodded and closed her book about Greek Mythology before following her mother.

Do you want to know something interesting? She found out why her father left her and her mother. Well, Kurama did.

Months ago, when she sent a Shadow Clone to the library henged just like Ino Yamanaka and a strange monster attacked her Clone. She had joked, when she received the memories of the attack, that the giant snake was Manda long lost brother or bastard son, Kurama didn't thought it was funny. He screamed about how she needed to pay more attention and take things more seriously for her clone had just been attacked by a Basilisk.

After that, he didn't give her a choice and controlled her body till he found any information that explained why the giant snake had attacked her clone. This ended leading him to the topic of Gods and Demi-gods. And not any gods, it was Greek Gods.

"Your name is Greek and I told you that your father wasn't human." Was what he said. "Now go read a book and find out who the hell is that man."

They didn't find anything that pointed to who was her father. She really hoped it wasn't Dionysus, no offence or anything, but she didn't like what he represented. This was why she was reading a book about Greek Mythology even if she hated to read and study (It is boring!) or why she was taking the book with her while her mother took her to the Aquarium when she should be having fun with talking fishes.

_Wait, talking fishes? _Sea-green eyes stared at the little fishes that were really talking to her.

Looking around her, Narumi knew that no one else could hear them or people would be screaming and running by now.

She grinned. She could talk with fishes! It was awesome! She was awesome!

**No your stupid girl, it is our answer!** She blinked her eyes confused as she heard Kurama say it. **Poseidon, kit. Poseidon is your father.**

Narumi smiled happily. She had a new life, a good mother and now she knew who her father was. She was happy.

The black haired girl frowned for a moment as she thought about the Basilisk her clone fought and killed. She should have know that her knew life was too good to be true. Nothing good happened to her without some type of price… So where was the bad part on it? The monsters? Would she be attacked more times because of her father?

**I'm sure you will.**

Narumi narrowed her eyes with determination and smirked. If she ended being attacked she would fight back, she would protect her mother and she would make her father proud, she would show him that she was worthy of being his daughter.

That and she would have some fun fighting some monsters; this new life was starting to get boring.

**The Intervention of the Fates**

**I was reading some fics about Naruto being the son of a God and then being sent to Percy Jackson Universe then I was thinking; _Why not make one where a FemNaru is reincarnated as Percy? _**

**I hope you guys like it and that my English is not so bad.**

**Please Review, Follow and Favorite!**

**- Cissnei.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**Before the story start, I have a question… How do I get a Beta? I really don't know…**

**Anyway… I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**Fury of a Teacher **

Kurama hated teachers.

When his container had been Narumi, she never had a good teacher, not even that scarred man, Iruka, could be considered a good teacher, even if he had tried to help her with her studies one time or other it didn't matter. Because, at first, he had been like everyone else. Hating the girl for something she hadn't control over. And when he finally came to his senses, it had been too late.

At the Academy, most teachers ignored her or tried to sabotage her homework and practical lessons. It didn't help that Narumi had dyslexia and ADHD (Something that she stil has in this new life for the girl exasperation) and every time she told them that she couldn't read the kanji or that she couldn't stay quiet, they never believed her. Those bastards just wanted an excuse to punish her and did exactly that, kicking the petit girl out of the class even when she was just yawning (Shikamaru Nara, who was always seen sleeping in class, did it from time to time. But did they punish or yell at the heir of Nara Clan? Of course not!).

So seeing that she would never learn anything if things continued like that, he had decided to train her himself. The problem was that he had a small list of what he could teach her since he was suck in cage inside her mind, but with just his instructions and the memories he collected from his time sealed in Kushina and Mito, Narumi learned the most advanced ways of chakra control (The Academy method was useless for someone that had more chakra than even the Hokage) and Fuuinjutsu (The art of sealing which the Uzumaki Clan had been feared for).

The fox decided to let her taijutsu and ninjutsu skills to her future Jonnin teacher, but to say he was disappointed with the man was an understatement.

Kakashi Hatake, the so called teacher of team 7, ignored both Narumi (Who was the daughter of the man who he knew Hatake had considered being his father figure) and her useless pink-haired teammate, and focused all his attention in that stupid Uchiha boy. The only thing he taught to his container was a little of moral, teamwork and chakra control (Something that she already knew and Hatake never believed her).

After him came the Toad Sage, Jiraya. A godfather that left her to fend for herself, a godfather that would rather focus more on writing his _porn books_ instead of taking care of the daughter of his so called prized pupil like he was supposed to do. What the white haired man taught her? Nothing! She refused to sign the toad summon contract and in an attempt of making her reconsider and teach her how to control his power (Like the girl needed help to control his power at that time. Ha! She could control it since she was six) did something that made Kurama hate teachers more and more.

He kicked her out of a cliff.

What if she hadn't him sealed inside her? The man would have left her die.

So no, as Narumi, she never had a good teacher. Now… When she was reincarnated and old enough to start learning, the story was different. Not just she was home-schooled with teachers that were aware of her problems with learning, but her mother too paid for any course she was interest in doing, like her martial arts class (The girl needed an excuse of how she knew how to fight after all).

Aria had been happy at being home-schooled for a while and no monster had attacked for his deception and hers surprise, but the moment a monster did attack, it had gone after Sally and it ended being cut in half by a sword made of solid water that Aria had made by manipulating the particles of air. No one hurt someone precious to Aria. The girl had never been loved before by another human nor did she have a family before, so Aria was really protective of the members of her new family (And yes, the Gods were in her list of "Precious People that needed to be protected", they were all related to her father in way or another).

After that attack, which happened when she was 10, Aria convinced her mother of sending to a boarding school. Sally did send her to one, but because of his insistence, the girl ended being expelled again and again till she was placed in a private boarding school called Yancy Academy. At this school, Kurama stopped to control her body and make her be expelled; something told him that this would be the place that would start her true destiny.

The teachers were all idiots (like always) and she finally made a friend called Grover Underwood, he was gentle and cripple boy that they were sure wasn't normal, not because he smelled like a goat. No, it was because he seemed to know the only teacher Kurama liked in that place (Mr. Banner or something). Like Grover, the new teacher was rather suspicious, especially because of the amount of attention he gave to Aria and how he smelled like a horse (what was with those people and animals?). His container respected the man, but she too was afraid of him. That made the fox snort, she wasn't afraid of the Shinigami, nor was she afraid of him, but she was afraid of a man in a wheelchair. Her answer? _"I knew what to expect from the gods of our world… I knew what to expect from anyone. Mr. Brunner is like my father… Ancient, powerful and an unknown factor... I do fear my father, but not like an enemy… Brunner? I'm always watching my back when I'm near the man."_

_Kurama? Are you alright?_

The fox blinked lazily as he heard the question. **Why?**

_I don't know… You was just too silent for my liking… Planning to kill someone?_

**Not yet… I was just thinking about how much I hate teachers.**

He could almost see the girl raising an eyebrow at it. _Kurama… You hate any type of human._

**Uchihas and teachers are the top of my shit list. **He said as mere of fact, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. Why she even decided to interrupt his solitary time?

_If you say so… _She chuckled before cutting the connection between them, leaving the fox alone in cage again. Kurama stared at the sewer that was his prison and his container mindscape before closing his eyes and relaxing again.

_**Brat…**_

**00**

Sitting next to Grover, Aria crossed her arms as she shook her head. She was really happy to know that Kurama wasn't planning to exterminate the mankind or something at the moment, but she really hated it when he stayed quiet for too long. It wasn't a good sign and every time he decided to have a "solitary time" so he can think about his enemies (Like how he was doing right now), Aria would start to get a little paranoid.

Kurama had a special ability of sensing Negative Emotions, and he always stopped to think about his enemies (or anyone that was present in his shit list) when something bad was going to happen, not that he even knew that he did it.

Today, her class was in a bus to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was a simple school trip, but she was sure that the _something bad_ was going to happen there. If she wasn't feeling so nervous (for she didn't have not even a single kunai in her pocket and couldn't protect herself if needed), Aria would be more than happy to listen more about her Greek Mythology, but she wasn't in the mood for it.

She took a breath, trying to calm herself. Last time she was in a fool mode, she accidentally created a small earthquake that destroyed half of the first school her mother had sent her. Aria really didn't want to create another earthquake and end hurting someone.

She heard a small, and horrible (so horrible), sound of someone laughing and turned her head to see Nancy Bobofit throwing wads of her peanut butter and ketchup (or was it jelly?) at Grover. Aria knew that she shouldn't do anything to help her friend since already was probation, but that girl chose the wrong day to make her annoyed.

"Nancy." Aria narrowed her eyes in the direction of the ugly ginger haired girl making her wince in fear and shrink a little.

Grover looked at her in panic. Aria shook her head with a small smile, showing him that she wouldn't do anything (not that he would even see her doing something to protect him) and the boy relaxed a little. At the same time, Nancy got her courage back and threw another piece of her lunch in Grover direction, but before it could reach his face, Aria looked at it and moved her fingers lazily. She was really proud of herself when the little flying projectile was shoved right back at Nancy face making the girl give a small cry.

"Wow…" Aria murmured with an amused smile. Nancy turned her attention back to her. "I think the wind don't like you very much, Nancy."

The red head narrowed her eyes with a frown and opened her mouth to scream at the girl but one look at Aria eyes made her stop. Nancy paled as if she had just seen a monster and tunerd her head to another direction, looking at anyone but the green eyes girl.

Grover blinked his eyes confused and looked at Aria trying to see what was so scary. The petit girl turned her attention to him and smiled. He blushed and looked at his hands making her chuckle.

_Thank you for the help, Kurama._

**Just don't disturb me again till the end of this trip. **She heard the fox answer before she felt their connection disappear.

Aria had said that she couldn't do anything because of her probation. But it didn't mean she couldn't use the demon fox sealed on her to scare the girl.

_I wonder what type of illusion he made Nancy see?_

She thought about it for a while before hearing two words in the back of her mind.

**The sunset.**

Aria paled a little and placed a hand in head feeling sick as she remembered the eternal illusion that always appeared behind Rock Lee and Maito Guy when they got overly 'youthful'.

Now she was feeling a little of pity towards Nancy. The Sunset wasn't something that you could forget easily, it could make the best of the shinobis cry and implore for someone to end his life… It was worst of the tortures.

_Poor poor Nancy… She will be traumatized for the rest of her life…_

**00**

Of the two teachers there, Mr. Brunner was the one who led the tour in the Museum. Aria knew that he was in the front of the group, but she was more interested at the glass cases full of really old black and orange pottery. That was what she called artistic; orange was the best color you could find around. She stood there, staring at the beautiful pottery before turning her attention at some of the marble statues. She searched for one that had any type of connection with her father, but when she couldn't find any, Aria turned and ran in the direction where the group had gone. She looked arounf and sighed in relief when she saw that Mr. Brunner had just stopped, she had been afraid that he had already started the lesson without her present.

Aria listened with attention, trying to hear something that she still didn't know about the gods, after that, he gathered them around a thirteen-foot-tall column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a_ stele_, for a girl about their age. Aria inclined her head interested, analyzing the grave as Mr. Brunner started to explain about the carvings on the sides.

Her bad mood was starting to come back if the way her fingers were twitching or the water dancing around them was any indication. Greek Mythology and History were subjects she loved because of it connection with her father and the brats around her couldn't shut their traps!

Feeling eyes on her, Aria turned her attention to the other teacher and narrowed her eyes a little when she saw Mrs. Dodds, the substitute math teacher, giving her an evil look. The same one that bastard of the Orochimaru had when he wanted to kill something. Mrs. Dodds wasn't human, that she knew. But she had a different aura from the others monsters she had encountered before.

They were like dirt compared to her, something weak and useless.

Aria took a deep breath before turning her attention back to Mr. Brunner. But the moment Nancy started to blab about a naked man on the _Stele_, Aria lost any type of self-control she had, creating small sebons made of solid water and holding them firmly before snapping at the girl. She couldn't hurt the ugly girl, but she could very well scream at her.

Though, she hadn't meant for it to be so loud.

"Can you shut up for _Shinigami_ sake!" Shinigami, not Hades. She didn't thought her Uncle would like it if she said his name for something so trivial.

"Miss. Jackson." She froze at the voice of Mr. Brunner and cursed, she really didn't like it when the powerful man attention was focused on her. "did you have a comment to make?"

"No sir, I'm sorry for disturbing the lesson..." Aria murmured under her breath, red cheeks red with embarrassment. She really needed to work a little more with her control. What if she yelled at her father? Or worse…! Old Uncle Zeus!

The man stared at her for a moment before he pointed to one of the pictures on the _stele_, asking what the picture meant. Aria looked at the _stele_ before groaning. That one had really amused Kurama to no end, the fox hadn't stopped to talk about it for almost four weeks when they had read about it for the first time.

"That's the Titan Kronos eating his children…" She replied a little annoyed.

She really,_ really_, didn't like that story. Not after Kurama made some rather unnecessary comments about what he would have done if he was in the place of the gods.

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, looking a little pleased. "And can you tell me _why_?"

She nodded. "The guy ate his children because of a prophecy that told him that his children would take over one day..." She made a pause, thinking of how she would continue. "Because of this, he ended eating his children… But you know, is like that story of Jocaste and her son, you can't run from fate… Or fates…" She murmured the last part, remembering about how they were the reason she was there and took a breath before continuing. "Anyway, all he did was set the prophecy in motion. What he didn't know, was that his wife hid her last born, Zeus, and gave the Titan a rock in the place of the future King. Hum… Zeus grew up and tricked into eating a mixture of mustard and wine which ended with his father barfing up his brothers and sisters…" She grinned. "And then there was fight and in the end the Gods won."

"Eeew!" She heard one of the girls comment at the barfing part.

Then Nancy Bobofit said; "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, _'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids'_."

Aria snorted. She really hoped that one of her relatives had control over this time of thing; she would love to ask him or her to put a question like this one at Nancy job application.

"And why, Miss. Jackson –" Aria almost face palmed. Why it was always her? "– to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted." Grover murmured.

"Shut up!" Nancy snapped at Grover, her face getting a rather ugly shade of red, much like the color of her hair. Was it even natural? If not, then maybe the girl still had salvation.

"I–I think that If I ended making a trip to Greece I would have to understand their culture and history right? If I know all this then I wouldn't end insulting anyone on accident. And err… I think each myth can give you a new lesson in life?" She shrugged. "I don't really know."

Mr. Brunner smiled at her. "Very good, you could have improved your answer a little more, but it was acceptable." Aria just nodded even if she was feeling a little displeased with what he said. But Mr. Brunner always seemed to want the best of her, so she stayed quiet. "Well, even if it could have been better, full credit. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who of course, being immortal Gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

Aria gave a sigh of relief when the class drifted off. She raised an eyebrow as she saw the girl holding their stomach ("They wouldn't have survived at the Elemental Nations if they can't even hear about Kronos and his children without feeling sick…" Was Aria thought as she shook her head at those girls' reactions), the guys on other hand were pushing each other around and acting like they were gorillas.

**Don't insult those animals, they are rather intelligent…** She chuckled and nodded at Kurama's comment.

_I'm sorry… They were acting like idiots?_

She could almost see him nod his head. **Better.**

Aria looked at Grover and smiled at him, the two of them were ready to follow the group when Mr. Brunner stopped them saying; "Miss. Jackson."

Aria looked at the older man and turned, telling to keep going while she talked to the teacher. The boy was a little hesitant, but he nodded his head and walked away. She then turned her attention back to her teacher, wincing a little when she saw the look in his face. That look that he had already seen too much, survived too much was one of the reasons she feared him. It was the same look the Sandaime Hokage had sometimes and time old man had fought with against the zombie version of the Shodaime and the Nidaime even being weaker because of his age. The old man just died because he decided to sacrifice his soul to the Shinigami so he could seal Orochimaru's arms.

If that had been a weaker Sandaime, she was even afraid of knowing what he could have done if he had been younger.

"Yes sir?"

"You must learn the answer to my question. Truly answer it."

"About the Titans?" She asked, scratching her right cheek feeling confused.

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it." This made her raise an eyebrow.

What he – Did Mr. Brunner know about her father? About her being a Demi-God? But how?

**This isn't good, kit. Maybe the man is an enemy.**

She decided to ignore the fox. Mr. Brunner was powerful, but she doubted he was the enemy.

Aria nodded her head slowly. "Ok."

"What you learn from me," he started, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will only accept the best of you, Aria Jackson." Now this made her a little angry, sure he was a great teacher in class when he set up those tournament days, but the man was pushing her a bit hard. If it hasn't been for Kurama or her Shadow Clones, she would never have the grades she had.

"I-I'll try harder…" She murmured, feeling a little uncomfortable and left to eat her precious ramen. But before she turned around, she saw Mr. Brunner giving a sad look at the _stele._ It was like he had been at the girl funeral, like he had known her.

**He isn't human, Kit. You keep forgetting it, we don't know for how long his race, whatever it is, lives.** Aria nodded before starting to walk again.

She would have to truly pay attention to her teacher from now own.

**00**

As the class gathered in the front steps of the museum, Aria saw Grover sitting at the fountain, away from the others kids in a place where no one could associate them with their classmates, she waved to him before taking a sit beside him. The raven haired girl raised her head and stared at the sky with apprehension. Storm clouds were brewing and the weather had been acting really strange lately, she didn't like it. It was almost an _omen_ or something.

**Your father and your Uncle Zeus must be fighting.**

Aria frowned. _Fighting about what?_

**Something really childish I'm sure. Something like **_**"Mother always liked me more!"**_**. **She snorted.

Nah! Her father and uncle would never fight about something so stupid… Would they?

"Detention?' asked Grover.

"Nah," She replied with a small smile. "Not from Brunner… But sometimes, I just wish he'd lay off me. I'm am not a genius, you know." Aria hummed. "Maybe he wants me to learn all of it because I'm related to some Greek God or something." She looked at her friend by the corner of her eyes and frowned when he tensed and gave a nervous laugh.

So Grover knew something too.

_This is starting to creep me out. I knew the two of them weren't normal and all but…_

**I told you to not trust them! They have been stalking you!**

She ignored the fox again and opened her cup of instant ramen, placing a water on it and, narrowing her eyes a little, she manipulated the temperature of the water till she thought it was satisfactory. Aria grinned and started to eat.

"Will you eat your apple?" Aria shook her head, letting the boy take the fruit.

The two stayed in silence till Nancy and her annoying sidekicks appeared. Aria finished her cup of ramen and glared at the girl when she dumped her lunch on Grover. The fact that she even dared to look innocent made Aria almost wake Kurama up so he would use the _"Sunset"_ on the ginger haired girl again.

"Oops!" When the girl looked at her with a smirk, Aria lose her self-control for the second time that day and the water from the fountain rose up, pushing the other girl away.

"Did you see that –?"

"–the water–"

"–like it grabbed her–"

Aria sighed as Nancy stared at her. Well, it seemed that the ginger haired girl hadn't saw the same things like the others. She then screamed at the teacher – Mrs. Dodds – and the woman just appeared next to them. Aria had to contain herself from attacking the woman, she hated it when people appeared out of nowhere! It was bad enough all those Chunnins and Jonnins from Konoha and their stupid _Shunshin_.

**Kit, stop thinking about it!** Aria winced as Kurama yelled at her pouted. She hated it when people yelled at her. **And don't go acting like a child right now! This woman is dangerous dammit!**

After her appearance, Mrs. Dodds asked Aria to come with her and Grover was right there trying to protect her; saying that it had been his fault. But the old hag just glared at him making the poor boy tremble. Aria placed a hand in his left shoulder and smiled, saying that everything would be fine and before she followed the teacher, she turned her attention to Nancy and glared making tears form in the girl eyes. Ha! Those lessons with Ibiki and Anko from the T&I Department when she still had been Narumi truly paid off all the tortu – Hum… Training. Yes, all the training she had to do.

When Aria looked at Mrs. Dodds again, she narrowed her eyes as she saw that the woman was already at the entrance of the museum. This couldn't be good.

Was this why Kurama had been so irritated?

**Kit…**

_I know… I'll be fine._ She left the "I hope" out, for who, she was still trying to find out.

**00**

Aria twitched her fingers, ready to fight, as she followed her teacher and their passed the gift shop. Walking deeper into the museum, she cursed in all languages she knew as she noted that they stopped back to the Greek and Roman Gallery of the museum where it was empty. She was a lone with her the teacher that looked like she wanted to kill her.

When Mrs. Dodds started to growl like an animal, Aria tried to calm herself. It wasn't the right moment to lose control, she needed to focus or she would end dead.

**You won't die on me again Kit. As if I would let you.** She smiled at it.

"Now honey, you have been giving us a few problems."

Aria narrowed her eyes. What problems? She doubted it was about the pranks she had done at school… So what?

"What problems exactly?"

The old hag hissed something and her eyes started to glow making Aria took a step back and placed herself in her taijutsu style. As did it, Mrs. Dodds started to change, her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She was not human that was for sure. Aria almost smiled. The woman was truly a hag with those bat wings and craws and a mouth full of yellow fangs and it seemed that she was the boys as her next meal.

**I've seen scarier and uglier things before. **

_Oh?_ Aria asked a little curious even if that wasn't the moment for something like that.

**One word; **_**Juubi**_**.** She shivered at the thought of the Ten-Tailed Beast that Kurama had shown her when he told her the story of how the Bijuus had been created. That one-eyed monster was truly something she never wanted to see in a battlefield.

Then, to her surprise and Kurama irritation, Mr. Brunner, who she had seen reading a novel at the entrance of the museum, was now at the entrance of the gallery with a pen in his hands. A pen!

"What ho, Aria!" The man yelled as he threw the pen at her. She took the pen even if she thought it would be useless against whatever her teacher was, she had never seen a monster like that one before. Mrs. Dodds lunged at her and Aria kicked the hag with all force she could produce. When she saw the teacher being shoved a few meters away from her, Aria smirked before snatching the ballpoint of the pen out accidentally, watching with wide eyes as it transformed into a sword. The same bronze sword Mr. Brunner always used on the tournament day.

**Interesting… **She ignored Kurama, focusing her attention in her… Let's continue using hag of a teacher.

As Mrs. Dodds was trying to recover from the kick, Aria manipulated the air around her and smiled when water chains warped around the hag, making sure that it wouldn't get away any time soon. Aria run and twitched the sword in her hand feeling a little uncomfortable with the weapon since she was more used with kunais or a staff. When the blade stabbed Mrs. Dodds, Aria watched with fascination as the hag burst in a shower of yellow powder as if she had just vaporized on the spot with nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech that made Aria shiver at the horrible sound.

Aria sighed in relief before frowning as she thought about what just happened.

_She disappeared… Vaporized. But… It doesn't mean she's dead… _Kurama hummed.

**I doubt it. That thing will come back, I'm sure.**

Aria looked at her hand and blinked her eyes surprised as she saw the ballpoint pen where the sword had been. The raven haired girl took a deep breath and relaxed, bowing her head as she placed her free hand in her forehead.

_I'm getting a headache, this is getting more and more complicated and strange. You know, I'm starting to miss my boring life…_ Kurama snorted at the dramatic way she said that. It had been so depressed that anyone who didn't know Aria and her antics would think that the girl was dying.

**Kit, you have been reincarnated for a motive. Do you really think your life would be normal? That and you're a freaking Demi-God. **She blinked her eyes.

_Oh yeah! I had forgotten about it!_ Kurama face palmed with a groan.

**This girl will be the death of me.** Aria laughed as she walked away from the gallery.

_We are stuck together remember?_ He murmured something that she couldn't understand so Aria just chuckled and stopped to walk when she finally reached the entrance of the museum, frowning when she noted that it was raining. Grover was using a map from the museum as some type of tent to keep himself from getting too wet, while Nancy was still wet from early and getting worse.

Aria snorted as she saw the girl. She looked like a ugly wet cat mixed with a pug.

Nancy looked at her and smirked. "I hope Mrs. Kerr gave you detention!"

**Who?**

Aria raises an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Our teacher, duh!" Aria and Kurama both try to think if they knew Mrs. Kerr as Nancy walked away. When they didn't found an answer, Aria turned to Grover. "Where's Mrs. Dodds?"

_I thought you said that the hag would be back!_

**I'm confused too, kit!**

"…Who?"

**The goat boy knows something!** Kurama growled and she nodded. The pause Grover made had made before giving her an odd look was enough for them to know that Mrs. Dodds hadn't been something created from their imagination.

"Not funny, G-Man." Aria crossed her arms. "This is serious." She winced as thunder boomed overhead.

Aria whimpered. _Uncle is angry! I don't want to die again because of a lightning or something related!_

**Gaki, calm down! You should focus on the hag for now, not your Uncle.**

She nodded and turned to Mr. Brunner who was under a red umbrella reading his novel, as if he never moved from that place. Not that her or Kurama believed it.

Mr. Brunner looked distracted and said. "Ah! My pen! Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Miss. Jackson." Aria nodded slowly and gave him the pen.

"Sir… Where's Miss. Dodds?"

Mr. Brunner looked at her with a blank face. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. The substitute math teacher?" He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. He was good actor, but she grew up in a ninja world in her first life. She knew he was messing with her. "Aria, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far I know; there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?"

Aria wanted to respond, but she just sighed and rubbed her temple irritated.

_What the hell is going on? Is this a Genjutsu?_

Kurama stayed quiet for a moment before answering her, though he made her feel worse. **I don't know kit.**

She really hoped it wouldn't get stranger.

She snorted. Ok… She jinxed it. Things would get worse.

**Hey, kit.**

_Yeah?_

**I hate teachers. **Aria rolled her eyes with a smile.

Nah. Even if things did get worse. She still had Kurama with her.

**Fury of a Teacher**

**So! Hope you liked it! Please Review, Follow and Favorite!**

**Make me happy!**

**- Cissnei.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

** : **_I know Naru/Aria is a bit OOC… But think like this: Narumi/Aria grew up in a different way from CannonNaruto. So she has different goals, a different way to see the world and different techniques. And I think that if CannonNaruto had been a girl, he would have had a different personality…_

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**The Fates**

Aria life after her little encounter with the hag that was Mrs. Dodds had been completely normal and boring, _so boring_ that she decided to see if someone remembered Mrs. Dodds. But every time she asked something about the old hag, people would look at her like she was crazy. To Aria annoyance, it was the same look anyone would give her back in Konoha when was eating at Ichiraku, though she never found out what the problem was, members of the Akimichi Clan always ate more than her, in fact, she never went to 36 bowl of ramen and the clan heir record had been of 40 bowls.

Since her efforts were useless, Aria decided to focus on one person she knew to have the answers she needed.

Grover Underwood.

Her friend always hesitated before denying that he knew the old hag and the guy was a terrible liar. Really, she needed to teach him how to lie. She couldn't lie to her mother, and Aria doubted that she could lie to her father, but other people? It was easy.

Anyway, besides everyone having forgotten about Mrs. Dodds, the strange storm continued and to make things worse, the biggest tornado ever seen in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy, which made her almost hide beneath her bed for the rest of the week. That day, she just stayed there; praying for her any deity that came to her mind so they could stop her father and Uncle from killing each other or killing her in the process. That and because of Sasuke's Chidori, she started to have an extreme phobia of lighting and the only reason she didn't have an attack of panic was because Kurama always controlled her body before her mind registered that there was lighting or thunder nearby.

The thought that her father and Uncle won't stop fighting was starting to make Aria cranky and irritable most of the time (One: Because, again, she didn't like lighting, and two: They were family, why they would fight to the point that it was affecting the mortal world? Did all their fights do it?). While her mod was changing, and not for the best, her grades were still the same because of Kurama, but she started to fight more and more with Nancy Bobofit and her sidekicks (it was more a one sided fight were Nancy tried to make her do something tragic and the girl and her friends always ended in the infirmary because of her powers, last time, she glared at Nancy with so much hate that the ginger haired girl started to cough blood and looked like she couldn't breathe. Aria still didn't find out what happened).

At first, she thought things couldn't get worse, but Aria ended jinxing herself and the result was her getting in trouble for calling her English teacher an old perverted sot, she had used the same definition to insult Jiraya back in Konoha (though she still didn't know what it meant), and the Headmaster sent her mother a letter to her mother telling her that Aria wouldn't going to Yancy in the next year (not that the girl even cared for it, Kurama was thinking about what he would make her do so she could be expelled).

Good thing she wasn't coming back. Maybe she could convince her mother of allowing her stay at home and be home-schooled again?

**Don't you have an exam to study for?** Aria groaned as she heard the fox say it.

_Do I have to?_

Kurama snorted.

**Not that I care, Kit, but your mother won't like it if your grades aren't good.** Aria winced but nodded.

She didn't want to disappoint her mother so it would be better if she studied. With this thought, Aria decided to try and study a little, but it didn't matter how many times she tried to read, she couldn't concentrate. And this time, Kurama wasn't helping her because he decided to go to sleep so she couldn't ask him to clear her mind and help her memorise what she needed.

_How I will reme –_ Aria made a pause and blinked slowly before her jaw dropped and she facepalmed. She should have thought about it before. Maybe this was the reason Kurama wasn't trying to help her study, he knew she could use her Shadow Clones to do it for her. _Bless the soul of the Nidaime Hokage that created this ingenuous technique!_

Aria grinned and created three clones, one to explore the school and see if it could find any information about Mrs. Dodds (She won't give up till she has one good information about that woman. Kurama said that she would be back, and Aria believed him, so because of it, she needed to know more about her enemy). The other two clones received the job of studing while she took a nap. Maybe she could even visit Kurama in her mindscape? He always had some interesting stories to tell.

**Don't even think about it.**

Aria pouted.

Kurama was so mean to her.

**00**

While the original Aria stayed in her run, her clone – who was dubbed Cloria (It wasn't a creative name mind you, but she didn't know what else to call the clone) – was walking downstairs to the faculty officers (It was the best place to start her investigation about Mrs. Dodds, the clone thought). Most of the offices were dark and empty, but to her suspicious, Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, and the light from his widow stretching across the hallway floor.

The clone nodded to herself, approaching the officer but before she could move, she heard two very familiar voices coming there. Mr. Brunner, who was asking a question, that she couldn't understand even if she was trying her best to, and Grover, who answered the question.

The clone narrowed her eyes in concentration as she tried to hear, but to her irritation, she could just heard part of it.

"…worried about Aria, sir."

The clone raised an eyebrow before taking a deep breath and making a few hands signs. The jutsu she was using was an Uzumaki creation; it made the user completely invisible. The problem with this technique was that since she didn't have completely control over it, anyone could hear her. So she tried to stay quiet as possible.

"…alone this summer," Grover said. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and _they_ know too…"

_Kindly One…?_ Cloria narrowed her eyes before groaning. Weren't they servants of her Uncle Hades or something? Had she insulted the man with her reincarnation and now he wanted her death? Was reincarnation even forbidden in this world?

She was almost crying in fear and sadness, thinking about what she could have done to her Uncle and how she didn't want a member of her knew family to hate her, when the clone remembered what more Grover had said. _Wait… Who is the "they"? Who knows about what?_

"We would only make matters worse by rushing her," This time Mr. Brunner had been the one to talk. "We need her to mature more."

_Mature more?_ She snorted. She was a reincarnated kunoichi, a trained killer with a giant nine-tailed fox sealed in her gut, and Mr. Brunner wanted her to mature more than that? _But is not like he knows that…_

"But she may not have time. The summer solstice deadline –" Now this made her pale.

A deadline? Now there was a deadline involved? She hated deadlines!

Cloria whimpered as she placed her face in her hands while a depressed cloud formed above her head in a dramatic manner.

_I'm starting to think that I'm cursed…_

"Will have to be resolved without her, Gorver. Let her enjoy her ignorance while she can."

Now this made her rise her head as the cloud disappeared and a murderous look formed in her face.

_Enjoy my ignorance?_ Cloria snorted. _Ha! Tell that to someone that hadn't seen her older brother figure kill his whole family or fought in a civil war!_

"Sir, she saw her…"

"Her imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will enough to convince them of that."

_And the mystery is solved!_ The clone grinned as she rubbed her hands together.

This Mist thing must be some type of Genjustsu that was manipulating everyone to forget about Mrs. Dodds. The only thing that was incommoding her now was that she had always been terrible with illusions and they always affected her, so how it wasn't happening now? Was it even an illusion?

"Sir, I… I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner told her friend with a tone that remained her mother when tried to comfort her about something. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Aria alive until next fall –"

The clone cursed in Japanese, but like that time in the museum, she hadn't meant to be so loud. Her eyes widened in panic and surprise as she noted that everything fell silent. Turning around, she ran away so she couldn't be so close to the officers when she dispelled so the information could be sent to the original Aria. But before she made the hand seal to do it, the clone saw something larger than Mr. Brunner come out of the room.

Curious, she didn't move, nor did she breathe, the clone stayed there hearing a slow _clop-clop-clop_. Like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside the door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and the moved on.

Cloria stared at the glass as her jaw dropped and her mind tried to understand what was going on there.

_A-A horse… What the hell? But Mr. Brunner is the only one that –_ She facepalmed. How hadn't she thought about it before? _Mr. Brunner is a centaur! _

With her hands frozen in the hand seal that would make her disappear, Cloria inclined her head a little and concentered chakra in her ears so she could hear anything.

"Nothing…" Mr. Brunner said with a tone that made it clear that he wasn't very happy with it. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

Cloria sighed. _Again with this winter solstice?_

"Mine neither." Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"

"Go back to the dorm." Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

Cloria almost chocked again.

The exams were tomorrow? She had completely forgotten about it! The only reason the original Aria even thought of studying was because Kurama told her so!

"Don't remind me." Gover whined.

When the lights in Mr. Brunner office went off, she concentrated chakra the hand seal and closed her eyes. _"Kai…"_

**00**

Aria jumped from her bed as she received the memories from her clone. Moaning in pain, she placed her hands in her head tried to organize all the memories before their made her have something worse than a simple headache. Kurama, who too awoke because of the memories, was watching the events that occurred in her head.

They ignored her others clones that stared at Aria for a moment and then turned their attention back to the pile of books in from of them. Aria took a deep breath and placed herself in a meditation position and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, Aria was standing in front of an enormous cage. Hugging herself, she took a few steps close to the cage as a figure came out of the shadows.

Aria smiled a little at the Nine-Tailed kitsune with red-orange fur and red eyes. Kurama upper-body structure was of a human, complete with opposable thumbs on its clawed hands and he was incredibly tall – _really tall_ –, standing roughly at the same height as the Mont Rushmore or more and with a full grown human being smaller than his eye.

Red eyes stared at her for seemed to have been hours to the petit girl. Kurama was waiting for her to talk to him, but since she could just look at his face, he decided to make the first move. "Kit, did you do something?"

"No!" She made a pause. "I-I don't know?"

"Someone wants you dead and doubt it is because I'm here this time." So much people had wanted her death because of him in her first life. Though, the Akatsuki had wanted to capture him, but they would have ended killing her even them. No Jinchuriki can survive the extraction of their Bijuus. "Think Aria, _think_!"

"Fine…" She made a pause, her eyes going from one place to another as she thought before they stopped at Kurama again. "Dad and Uncle Zeus are fighting because of something… Uncle Hades is being involved, I'm sure… M-Maybe they accused him of… I-I don't really know!"

Kurama sighed. "Ok, this is good so far. Aria, think like the Shinobi you're. Try making it look like a mission or report."

She nodded.

"Alright… So… Hum… The Mizukage, who's my father, and the Kazekage, who's my uncle, are fighting against each other… Why? I doubt it is because someone from their village died so…" Aria opened her mouth in realization. "Something was stolen from one of the villages, something that was important to one of the Kages! A weapon maybe? A really powerful weapon."

Kurama nodded in agreement. It made sense.

When Aria still had been Narumi, some idiots from Takigakure tried to take her away, but since Jinchurikis are considered a valuable weapon to any village, the council of Konoha almost started a war with the minor village.

"This is why there is a deadline!" She said with wide eyes. "Is a deadline of how much time the thief has to return what had been stolen."

"Ok, kit. But why the Lord of the Underworld is involved? Remember the hag. Kindly Ones works for him."

"Everyone always accuse Uncle Hades, so he must have been accused or by my father or by Uncle Zeus. But from what I read, he's an honorable man… I mean, honorable God. I don't think he's the thief… But…" She placed her hands in her head and closed her eyes as she thought about it. "What the Hokage, that is Uncle Hades and someone who doesn't like to enter in the conflicts of the others villages without a motive and that is being accused by the others villages, would do to show his innocence or that there's another suspect?"

Kurama answered for her. "Kit, you used water against that hag. Isn't water your father power?"

Aria nodded slowly as she crossed her arms. "Yes… So we can say that the weapon that had been stolen is a possession of the Kazekage and the Hokage decided to attack me because he wanted to show that the Mizukage had help," She pointed to herself. "_my _help, to steal this weapon…" She took a breath. "T-This can't be right…"

"Why?" Kurama asked.

"Think about it Kurama. Uncle Hades must be accused of stealing or killing someone before, but I doubt he would have attacked one of his nephews or nieces to show a point. This doesn't make sense."

"He too lost something." Kurama deduced.

"And he thinks I helped my father take both his and Uncle Zeus weapons… If it _is_ even a weapon."

Kurama narrowed his eyes, thinking about all the stories they had read about the Gods.

"It is a weapon. Doesn't your father have a trident? It is a symbol of his power or something, wasn't it?" Aria nodded before a grin formed in her face.

"Of course! Uncle Zeus has his Lighting Bolt and Uncle Hades has his Helm." Her smiled disappeared in the same instant. "Oh my Kami! Someone stole my uncles' symbol of power!"

"And they think it was you." Kurama remained her with a amused smile in his face.

With her hands in both sides of her face, and her mouth opened, she was looking just like a human version of that painting; _"The Scream"_.

"And they think it was me!" She screamed. "I'm neither crazy nor suicidal to steal from them! I'm daughter of Poseidon! Not Hermes!"

"Maybe it was your father." Aria glared at him.

"My father is not a thief!" She yelled, a water staff forming in her right hand. "He's innocent!"

"He could be the King of the Gods with so much power." Seeing the staff starting to change to a naginata with a rather shaper blade, he continued. "It would be what a Shinobi Village would do. Steal all the Nine Jinchuriki and then they would have sufficient power to control the entire Elemental Nation."

"Kurama, _my father is not a thief_." She growled. "Stop speaking nonsense!"

Kurama nodded slowly, wondering how he would change the subject before the petit girl attacked him with that naginata.

When it came to her new - _and first_ - family, Aria was very protective, especially if someone was insulting one of her older brothers (Like Theseus and Triton) or if they are insulting her precious father.

Aria had never been a violent person, to tell the true, she is just like the Shodaime Hokage when it came to personality. She is a laid-back, peaceful and here and now type of person, but she would retaliate if it meant she could protect what she loved.

"Alright, it wasn't him. But you heard the goat boy and the horse man, there's a deadline. You're the main suspect along your father and we don't even know how we'll find what had been stolen and how to give it back to your Uncles."

Aria sighed defeated and sat on the wet floor of the sewer. With a cry of frustration, she placed her hands over her face and groaned.

"I don't know what to do... And here I was think that I would get married in this life."

Kurama snorted.

"Like I would let you get married, kit. I will fire a Bijuudama at any suitor you have." She glared at him making the fox laugh.

Aria shook her head and smiled a little.

She had survived years in Konoha and all the suicidal missions the council had given her in hopes of her dying. Finding her uncles' weapons couldn't be so difficult compared to being an nine years old girl fighting alongside the Rebels of Kirigakure against a brainwashed Yagura.

**00**

The next afternoon, Aria finally got out of the session of torture that the Yancy Academy insisted in calling a _simple exam_ (Three hours of Latin exam! Come on! Not even the First phase of the Chunnin Exam had been so horrible… Though the objective of that exam was to test each candidate capacity of cheating…).

_I don't think I want to do a Latin exam for the rest of my life… _Aria thought as she walked of Mr. Brunner that had called her the moment she started to walk in direction of the door, ready to stay from any remainder from that exam.

"Aria," He said making raise an eyebrow. She didn't like his tone. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's… It's for the best." Aria crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow feeling a little irritated. She knew that the other kids that were still finishing their exam could hear what he was saying and it was a little embarrassing. Couldn't he talk about it after _everyone_ had finished?

"It is ok, sir."

She really didn't care about Yancy. But he would do a great favor to her if he just nodded and dispensed her. But, _of course_, he continued to talk.

"I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say and Aria really hoped he would just give up and stay quiet. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

_Is this some talk about fate and destiny again? Is he saying that I was destined to be kicked out of this place?_

**Kit, you would have been kicked out anyway. It _truly was_ a matter of time.**

_But I just don't like the tone and words he's using. _It was the same one Kakashi used when he refused to train her, saying – with just a few words – that she didn't have talent to anything and that he would just end wasting his time with her.

Seeing how uncomfortable and silent she was, Mr. Brunner started to talk again. "No, no! Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say… You're not normal, Aria." Her eyebrow twitched. "That's nothing to be –" She raised a hand, stopping him.

"If you can excuse me, sir."

_I really need to get out of her before I break something. _

"Aria –" But she was already out of the door, glaring at anything and anyone in her way back to her room.

She needed to find a place to train before she ended creating another earthquake with her angry. The last time it happened, she destroyed half of the grounds of Yancy Academy.

**00**

On the last day of the term, Aria watched as her clones shoved all her possessions in different storage scrolls before placing them in her suitcase. She was alone again so didn't need to worry about anyone saying them and she was happy for this. Aria really didn't want to her the other girl brag where they were going and what they were going to do.

She wasn't in the mood for this.

**Are you going to say good-bye to the goat boy? **She heard Kurama ask as the clones disappeared and she grabbed her suitcase before walking away from the dorm.

_I don't think I need to._

And she truly hadn't to, because Grover was in the same bus as her to both hers and Kurama exasperation and suspicion. To make it worse, in the whole bus ride, they saw that Grover was very fidgety, like he was expecting something to come out the works to come after him. Or it was just her since she was the one being accused of theft.

Though, if she thought about his reaction, he was like this every single time they left the campus for any motive.

Sighing, Aria raised an eyebrow while looking bored. "Looking for Kindly One?"

Grover nearly jumped from his seat and the expression in his face… Now it was just priceless.

**You should make him scare more times!** Kurama said between laughs.

"Wha –What do you mean?"

She smirked and confessed about having eavesdropping on his and Mr. Brunner's conversation.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

**Everything.** Kurama deadpanned.

"Oh! Not much." She said, waving her hand lazily. "What's this deadline about anyway?"

Grover winced. "Look, Aria… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…"

Aria stared at him. "Grover –"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

"Grover, you don't know how to lie." Aria said making him sputter and his ear turn pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a couple of grubby business cards. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer." The card was in fancy script, which was murder on her dyslexic eyes, but she finally made out something like:

_Grover Underwood_

_Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long Island, New York_

_(800) 009-0009_

Aria almost grinned as she read it.

_Half-Blood Hill? Does this mean there are more demigods around?_

**How much do you want to bet that your Uncle Zeus is the one with more children running around? He seems to be the man whore of the family… Or was it Apollo?**

Aria snorted and turned her attention to Grover.

"What's Half –"

"Don't say it aloud!" Grover yelped. "That's my, um... summer address." That made Aria sigh.

What was the problem in just explain what was going on to her?

"Ok, ok! But why are you giving it to me? So I can visit you or something?"

_If this place give me a way to see my father I'm going to find it today. _Kurama groaned as he facepalmed. Murmuring something about 'Daddy's little girl'.

Grover nodded. "Or... or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?" Aria asked with a blank expression. She survived a Basilisk and fought one of her Uncle Hades' servants, she was fine. And Grover didn't look like someone who could fight.

Kurama nodded. **He's more like the first who die, you know, the guy who run away screaming for his mommy.**

This time, Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple.

"Look, Aria, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." He said making the Aria open her mouth with a look of disbelief.

_You have got to be kidding me._

**Who was the idiot who decided to send someone weak like him to protect you? Wasn't your father important?**

Aria ignored the fox, she really couldn't believe it. "Grover," Aria said. She really wanted answers. "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

**You already know.** She mentally rolled her eyes.

_I know, but I want him to tell me. Isn't Grover my friend?_

Before he could answer, there was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound bus over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that they'd all have to get off so Aria and Grover filed outside with everybody else.

They were on a stretch of country road it seemed.

On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

_This is so random. _Aria thought as she took a look at the fruit stand on the other side of the street. The things on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks she'd ever seen.

The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

All in all, they were just three innocent old ladies…

Just… three… old… ladies…

_Shit… _Aria thought as she paled.

**Please, tell they aren't who I think they are…**

_Fates! The fucking fates!_

**Run, Kit! Run before they decide to kill you!**

But she couldn't move, she just stayed there, staring at them and to Aria and Kurama's fear, they were staring right back at her.

She looked at Grover to see that all the color had drained out of him, that and his nose was twitching. "Tell me, are they looking at you? They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah…" Aria said quietly.

It was freaking her out. She couldn't die yet! She wanted to talk to her father first and meet her brother Triton!

"Grover, are you ok?" Aria asked as she saw him start to tremble more and more.

Grover only pointed to the old ladies.

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. She heard Grover catch his breath. Aria she would have done the same thing, but she was too paralyzed to even move.

"We're getting on the bus," he told her. "Come on."

"Sorry, can't move."

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside while dragging her with him. But even with him making her enter the bus she still saw what happened next.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching them. The middle one cut the yarn, which they could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks.

**Don't look, kit!**

Aria did as Kurama said and looked away. She knew, deep inside, that those electric-blue socks represented the life of someone – or even hers –.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment, the bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life and everyone cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

_There is no such thing as coincidence, only hitsuzen._

**Kit, how many times I have to tell to stop quoting characters from those mangas you read? And this isn't time for something like this!**

_Ah, shut up Kurama! I'm trying to distract myself here!_

As she took a seat beside Grover and next the widow, Aria started sweating as if someone had just used a fire justu in her face. Grover wasn't any better but he was chatting his teeth like he was cold. Or it was just his goat side acting up.

"Grover?" asked Aria.

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

**Starting talking goat boy! **Kurama growled as if Grover could hear him.** Before we start torturing you for our answers.**

_Kurama, I don't torture people._

**We will use _the Sunset_! **Aria winced.

Yeah, that would make Grover talk.

Grover dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Aria, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"Three creep old ladies." At Grover serious face, she sighed. "Are they like Mrs. Dodds?"

Aria knew that they weren't. But she didn't want Grover or Mr. Brunner knowing that she already knew who her father was, what she was, about the monsters she had already killed and how she already knew the fates – more like about them – because they were the reason she had been reincarnate.

"Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." Aria winced a little.

Someone had just died or was about to die or maybe_ she _was the one that was going to die… This had just made her day so…

**Melancholic?**

_Something like that, yes… Thank you._

Grover closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something older, though Aria couldn't understand how.

"You saw her snip the cord." He said.

She nodded slowly. Really, slowly. "Yeah…"

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

_Last time…?_

**I bet he had to protect someone but his charge ended dead.** Aria nodded at Kurama suggestion, it was possible.

"What last time?" She asked, but was ignored by her now panicking friend.

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth." Grover mumbled to himself over and over again. Then he turned to her. "Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

**No way in Tartarus or whatever hell that exists in this world!**

Aria didn't answer for a while. Kurama would kill her (or make her see the Sunset) if she did what Grover wanted. Her nine tailed fox didn't trust Grover and didn't want her alone with him for a long period of time.

"Ok, I think…"

**Kit!**

_Calm down! I'll leave a clone with him! The guy will have a heart attack if I just leave him alone!_ This calmed the fox a little.

Grover nodded, looking at her in mournful way that made her sick. It was like he was already picking the kind of flowers that would be best on her coffin.

Aria hugged herself looked at the widow. The bus had stopped for a moment so she just stared at rather handsome man that was sitting on the sidewalk with a guitar in his hands and a distant look in his face. As if he knew she was looking at him, the blonde man turned his attention to her, smiling a little, like was encouraging her or saying that she didn't need to be afraid of whatever was scaring her.

Aria smiled gratefully and waved a little when the bus stated to move again. She was really happy to see that the man was waving back.

**Strange…** Kurama murmured. Their little encounter with the fates completely forgotten in the moment.

_You know Kurama… I don't know why… But he remind me of the sun for some motive…_

Kurama just nodded, not saying what he was thinking about who the guy. Aria was already worried about those old ladies; he didn't want to worry her more because he thought that guy not just reminded him of the sun.

The blond_ was_ the sun.

**The Fates**

**I didn't know what to name this chapter so I made it "The Fates" to be really simple… Not creative as I wanted, but whatever… And Apollo makes a Cameo! Yay! **

**Anyway!**

**Hope you liked it! And please; Review, Follow and/or Favorite!**

**- Cissnei.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**The Road to the Camp Half-Blood**

The moment Aria and Grover got off the bus, the green-eyed girl nodded to him as he asked for her to wait for him because he was going to the restroom. Knowing that he would be there for a while, she made a clone to stay in her place and got her suitcase and caught the first taxi uptown.

She knew that he clone would just stay to tell the boy that she had already gone home and that her technique would end making the cripple boy have a heart attack, but Kurama didn't want her near Grover. The boy going to the restroom just made the fox more suspicious.

He was going to report to that centaur. Was what the fox had told her as she entered the taxi and focused her attention to the driver.

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First…" She told the driver as she opened her suitcase and took a small black book from it, opening it as she closed the suitcase.

**Is this your Bingo Book? **She nodded agreement,humming to herself as she took a small pencil from the pocket of her orange hoodie and started to draw the Fates in a blank page, writing everything she knew about them and the observations she had made of them.

The _Bingo Book_ was more a book she made to place all the monsters she had encountered and classified, telling how to fighting them, what was their weakness and any other information important. Aria too made sure to write about the members of her family and her opinion about each stories of the mortals liked to call Mythology.

**You will need to make another one.**

_Why?_

**This one has gods and monsters. But you know now that there's a whole place for demi-gods… It would be good to collect information about each of them.**

Aria nodded at this. Kurama was right. She would trust her father and brothers (maybe her uncles and cousins too) with her life, but Aria wasn't about to trust those demi-gods. Even if they were all distant related, this didn't mean that most of them couldn't be a traitor or a spy.

_I'll make sure to make another one. _Aria thought as she got off the taxi, paying the driver and placing the book and the pencil in her suitcase. Taking a breath, she started to walk in direction of her home with a small smile.

She truly had missed her mother and couldn't wait to see the woman again. Aria frowned as she thought about her mother.

Sally parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her, so Aria never got to meet her grandparents (Too bad because she had missed having a grandfather around and this time Aria didn't have the Sandaime acting like a surrogate grandfather…). Sally wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

Aria had helped her mother as much as she could and she was proud to say that she had made life easier to her mother. But the green-eyed girl was sure that the only good break Sally got was meeting her father and having her.

Speaking of her father, when Aria asked about him (trying to see if her mother knew that he was a god), Sally told her that he was rich and important and their relationship had been a secret. Then she told her that one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on an important journey and never came back.

Kurama had snorted at it, saying that the journey hadn't been to the Atlantic, it was more like to Atlantis. Aria just ignored him and smiled at her mother as Sally told her that her father was lost in the sea, not dead. Really, the young girl was impressed with the way her mother had distorted the true like any shinobi would have done. That and it showed that: or Sally had guessed her father identity or the god had told her himself. Though Kurama doubted it was the second option, he was sure her Uncle Zeus wouldn't have let her father say anything.

Even Gods must have their own laws, was what the fox said when she asked why.

All in all, hers and her mother life had been simple and good till she started going to school and her mother started dating a disgusting man that made Aria think of Gato every time she looked at him. Not just the man was rude and pathetic, he reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. His smell was the only thing that stopped her from kicking the man out of her house and way from her mother.

Sally was trying to protect her, Kurama had told her, because her status as a demigod made her smell different than others humans and it was the reason the monsters always found her. So staying with a man like Gabe (or Smelly Gabe as she started to call him) was Sally way to protect Aria from monsters.

She would have told her mother that it wasn't necessary since she could protect herself, but Kurama had convinced her that it would be better to wait till the right moment to tell her mother anything of important about her. How she would tell her mother that she was the reincarnation of a kunoichi with a demon fox stuck in her gut anyway?

**The disgusting human has company. **Kurama told her as she walked into the apartment she lived with her mother and Gabe. By the auras present in the place (Good thing being a Uzumaki gave her greats sensor abilities and Kurama helped with his ability of sensing Negative Emotions), Aria knew that her mother wasn't home so she wasn't surprised in seeing Smelly Gabe in the living room and playing poker with his buddies.

Aria frowned in disgust as she saw chips and beer cans scattered all over the carpet.

"So, you're home." Gabe said around his cigar.

Aria narrowed her eyes. Gabe friends seemed quite uncomfortable; they couldn't even look at her. Kurama was more than happy when he noted that some of them were looking at her like she was Hades himself. It seemed that the idiots learned their lesson after Aria almost castrated one of them when the bastard tried to molest her.

"Where's my mother?"

"Working," He said. "You got any cash?"

His buddies winced as her eyes narrowed even further. Not that the idiot of Gabe noted it, the stupid man thought she was afraid of him.

Gabe, to her horror, had put more weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. Aria wanted to laugh at this thought (As if! Aria doubted that even her cousin Aphrodite could do something about his looks!).

**Can I kill him? No one will find the body!** Aria lips turned into a thin line.

That was a tempting offer, but to kill Gabe, Kurama would have to use her body and there was no way that she would let something like murder (even if justified) tarnish and disgrace her father name.

Knowing her thoughts, Kurama frowned as he felt displeased with her motive of not wanting the man's death. **Daddy's little girl**.

She ignored him. He could say what he wanted. She loved her father and the last thing she wanted was make him angry or displeased with her.

"I have _cash_, as you call it, but isn't like I would give it to you."

Gabe raised a greasy eyebrow and looked at her, narrowing his eyes. The kunoichi just moved her fingers a little. If he even tried something against her, she would drown him and then change the memory of his friends, and they would never connect her to his death… And if he attacked her, Aria was sure that her father wouldn't be angry with her for killing Gabe, he cared for her after all. Poseidon did care for her right?

"Your little bitch" Gabe's friends looked like they had just stopped breathing. "You should do what I tell you; your mother isn't here to help you and your pathetic father –" Gabe stopped talking. His buddies looked like they were suffocating, but he was more focused in the small girl in front of him.

Eddie wanted to hit the man as he felt like snakes were biting him and all he wanted was to kill himself so it would stop. Everyone knew to not insult Aria family members it was like asking to be beating. You could call her a bastard child; she would nod her head and say that it was true. Now… If you even thought of insulting her father and older brothers…

It was the same as asking to be killed.

Killing Intent was what he and the others called what they were feeling right now. It was the same thing she had done to Rick when he tried to touch the girl. Killing Intent could paralyze them with pure fear and sometimes make them feel pain, make them want to kill themselves and, from what Rick had said, it could even make the victim see visions of their own gruesome death.

They didn't know how she did it. But they weren't stupid enough to ask.

"What did you say?"

Gabe shook his head with difficult and she narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"If I were you," Aria said, ignoring the manic way Kurama was laughing in her head. "I would clean this place and get out of here for a while."

They stared at her for a while as the horrible feeling started to disappear.

"_Now_." She growled, watching with satisfaction as the group of barbarians started to move.

With an annoyed sigh, Aria turned around and entered in her room. Slamming the door as she placed her suitcase in the ground, Aria looked at her room and nodded in satisfaction.

After her first school, she noted that Gabe liked to make it his "study". He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving her stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on her windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. So using her Fuuinjutsu Skills, she placed some security seals and blood seals in the door to create a ward against him. The seals would shock anyone that wasn't keyed in the wards and if the person insisted, it would realize a blast of energy that could break some bones and send the person flying across the apartment. The seals not just blocked the door, but her whole room. She was sure her father wasn't the only that had transportation powers.

The only ones that were keyed in the wards to her room were her and her mother. Her father too, though placing him there had been really difficult. She had to manipulate the cells of the small vial of blood that she was using to make the seals so there was no trace of mortal blood on it. Aria wasn't sure if father could enter her room and it worked or if gods weren't affected by her seals, but she still tried.

"Aria?"

Aria smiled and run in direction of her mother as the woman walked into the room.

She truly loved her mother ("But you love your father more because you're Daddy's little girl." She ignored Kurama). The woman could make her feel better and happy just by walking into the room with her warm smile.

"Oh, Aria!" She hugged the petit girl tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

Kurama snorted. **Why all human parents always say it?**

_Say what?_

**When the child is away for a short period of time and come back, the parent always say something like **_**"You've grown!"**_** even if the human child didn't change at all.**

Aria hummed in response as she hugged her mother back. The green-eyed girl closed her eyes for a moment. Her mother red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world (beside ramen): chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central.

As the two of them sat together on the edge of the bed, Sally started to demand to know everything that Aria hadn't put in her letters (the young kunoichi was still trying to understand why she just couldn't use a cellphone). Aria noted that her mother didn't even mention anything about her being expelled, but the raven haired girl just thought the older woman was already used to the fact that Aria could never stay at a school without being expelled.

Aria opened her mouth to answer when she heard Gabe yelling from the other room, "Hey, Sally –How about some bean dip, huh?"

"How about you get it yourself?" The green-eyed girl growled, ignoring the way her mother looked at her. Sally didn't want them to start fighting, and it wouldn't happen. Gabe had a little a self-prevention and if the pause he made before answering was anything to go by, then he knew that Aria would do something worse than using her Killing Intent on him if he continued to talk to her mother.

"O-Of course…" Aria nodded with satisfaction and smiled like an innocent child when her mother raised an eyebrow.

Sally shook her head and smiled.

"So, did something happen?"

Aria blinked her eyes and started to tell her mother about her waiting to be home-schooled again, how she hadn't liked Yancy even if she had made some new friends, how she had been one of the best students in the Latin class but then she stopped talking as she thought about Grover and Mr. Brunner, the centaur, and Mrs. Dodds, the hag.

"What?" Aria stared at her mother that didn't seem to like her silence. "Did something scare you?"

Both Aria and Kurama snorted.

Did something surprise her? So many things... But scare her? Nothing much, lightning maybe... Though, if she truly thought about everything that had happened…

_Well, the fates did scare me…_

**Those things make even the Death God shiver, kit. Everyone is afraid of them. And with for a good reason.**

Aria frowned. She wasn't ready to tell her mother had had happened since this meant that she would have to explain about her situation and her abilities. She hated to lie to her mother, but she couldn't tell her yet. Maybe in a few years… "No, Mom."

Sally pursed her lips. The woman knew that her daughter was hiding something, but she just nodded her head knowing that Aria would talk when she was ready.

"I have a surprise for you," Sally said. "We're going to the beach."

Aria eyes widened as she smiled at her mother. "Montauk?"

"Three nights-same cabin."

"When!?"

Her mother smiled, patting her head. "As soon as I get changed."

Aria nodded, thinking about what she should pack. Some clothes, instant ramen, scrolls, books and her manga collection (so she wouldn't get bored), instant ramen, maps, the kunais and shurikens one of her neighbors – Theodore Sparks – had given to her (Kurama had said that the man was a Legacy or a son of her cousin Hephaestus, it would explain his perfect skills as a blacksmith), instant ramen, the weapons pouch Theodore's wife – Elizabeth Sparks – had given to her, her photo album, more instant ramen, her digital camera and a first-aid kit.

**Where are you going? To a C-Rank Mission? **Kurama asked when she finished her metal list.

_Well… All of that could be useful. _

Kurama hummed before he blinked his eyes. **Wait. How many times did you place ramen in that list?**

She didn't answer. Instated, the green-eyed girl grinned like a fox as she nodded her head to her mother that was talking about what they would do together in the beach. The fox rolled his eyes murmuring something about "Ramen obsessed girl" and "how he had wished that she would have given up on that stupid food in this life".

"Oh, you'll tell me what more happened when we get there… Right, sweet?"

Aria looked in her mother eyes and smiled a little, nodding her head. As Sally ruffled her hair and started talking again.

When she noted that her mother wasn't looking at her, the young kunoichi felt herself frowning.

_What now…?_

**00**

An hour later, when they were ready to leave, Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch as Aria placed her mother's bags in the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing Sally's cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend. Though, when Aria glared at him, he stayed quiet.

Aria knew that the man wanted nothing but to warn her that if something happened to his car, it would be her fault and she would punished.

Both Aria and Kurama snorted at it.

Yeah right. Like he could do anything against her.

"Don't you have anything better to do, Gabe?" Aria asked, mimicking Kakashi's eye-smile Version 3.0 (aka. The Eye-Smile of Doom), and the man shook his head with so much force, that she was hoping that he would break something.

Watching the man lumber back toward the apartment building, Aria grinned like a cat that got his canary. Focusing a little of chakra in her right hand, she pointed in Gabe direction and set the small wave of wind in his direction. The screen door then slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot by a cannon.

Nodding with satisfaction, Aria got in into Camaro and ignored how her mother was staring at her with a strange emotion in her eyes – was it amusement mixed with fear? –, the green-eyed girl then placed her backpack in her lap (Kurama was really curious as to why Sally never asked how everything Aria was taking to this trip even )and smiled at Sally, telling her to step on it.

The rental cabin where they were staying was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

But even then, Aria loved that place. It was her special place; a place where she could sit at night and think about everything that was going on with her. It was almost the Hokage Monument replacement, though she missed siting in the head of the Fourth Hokage.

**He was your father, you know. But you talk as if he was just a stupid man or something.**

Aria closed her eyes for a moment. Yes she did know that Minato Namikaze had been her father when she was Narumi, but she didn't see him as a father. The man should have known that pregnancy is dangerous for a female Jinchuriki with a seal so simple as the one Kushina had. He should have made precautions if something happened to him and his wife. He should have made sure to do a Dying Will or leave something that would protect her or give her a good life. He should have known that after all destruction that Kurama had brought to the village that no one would see her as human.

Kurama sighed. **Sorry… It was my fault. The way you had to grow up…**

Aria snorted. _No, it isn't, I already told you that. And I liked the way I grew up. It wasn't a normal childhood, but I liked it._

Taking her attention from her short conversation, Aria turned to see her mother smiling as they got closer Montauk. The older woman seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes, to Aria delight, turned the color of the sea.

They got in Montauk at sunset (Both Aria and Kurama shuddered as memories of two idiots wearing a green spandex invaded their mind as they saw the beach and the orange colored sky), opened all the cabin's windows, and went through their usual cleaning routine. Finished, mother and daughter walked on the beach, fed the seagulls, and played an improvised game of disc golf.

When it finally got dark, they made a fire, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Aria was really happy when her mother started ti tell her stories about when she was a kid that the green-eyed girl hadn't know yet and about the books Sally wanted to write someday. The last one made the raven haired girl grin like a fox. Maybe she could help her mother a little. She had a vast list of stories about ninjas to tell her mother and the name of the main character.

_And the name of the series will be Narumi: The Orange Hokage!_

Kurama snorted. **More like; Narumi: The Orange Menace.**

_Really? Thank you!_

**Do you even know what **_**menace**_** means?**

_I have no idea. _The fox sweat dropped both at the answer and at the cheerful tone of voice she was using. The girl was just like the Shodaime, there was no doubt of it. _But the Hyuugas and the Uchihas liked to call me that every time I pranked them, so it must be good because most of them were crying in angry and embarrassment and always something like: Ww'll get you next time your menace!_

**I'm still trying to understand how the hell you managed to prank the Hyuuga compound when the Hyuugas had those so called **_**'All seeing eyes' **_**of theirs.**

Aria grinned proudly. _I'm awesome like that!_

"Aria? Are you alright?" Turning to her mother, Aria nodded asked about her father as she tried to make her mother stop looking at her as if she was being possessed or talking to the death.

But when Sally eyes got all misty, the young kunoichi regretted her choice of words and question. But then she though that her mother would tell her the same things she always did, but Aria was proved wrong.

"He was kind, Aria," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes." Aria nodded to herself. She knew that already. "I wish he could see you, Aria. He would be so proud."

Aria smiled. She really hoped he would be proud of her, she was making sure to do everything right and get strong so her father would never regret or curse the day she was born.

"How old was I?" Aria asked. She knew more or less how old she was, but she wanted to know if her mother had known that her father had visited her that day. "I mean… when he left?"

Her mother watched the flames with a distant look in her eyes. "He was only with me for one summer, Aria. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But… he knew me as a baby."

_Come on! Really? Mom didn't know that he came to see me? Why hide?_

She could almost see the bored and disinterested expression in Kurama face as he replied. **He's a God. I think they have better things to do than to see their half-human children.**

_Ouch. You talk as if dad didn't care about me!_

**Maybe you're just luck, or he just wanted something from you. Like, I don't know… Someone to take the blame as he stole your Uncles' weapons?**

_Dad isn't a thief!_

**Yeah, yeah. **Aria sighed a little depressed. Kurama had the tendency of destroying her dreams and hopes without knowing or wanting to.

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." Aria nodded slowly.

"So… um… Can I be home-schooled again or you're going send me to another boarding school?"

Her mother pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."

Both Kurama and Aria frowned at it. It wasn't a difficult decision; it was matter of yes or no. And even if Aria didn't want to go to another boarding school, she knew that it would be safer to her mother if she was away. But the girl had been so selfless as Narumi, always making sure that village was happy and safe (even when they just ignored the fact that it was _her_ that had helped and saved them), that she just wanted to be a little selfish in this life.

"Because you don't want me around?"

The green-eyed girl cursed herself for not paying attention to what she was saying when her mother's eyes welled with tears. She opened her mouth to ask for forgiveness when Sally took her hand and squeezed it tight. "Oh, Aria, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

Aria could feel Kurama narrowing his eyes. **Didn't the centaur say something similar?** Aria nodded.

It was true, Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for her to leave Yancy.

But why?

"Because I'm not like other children?" Aria asked confused.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Aria. But you don't realize how important you are. I should never have let you be home-schooled… But I wanted to have you close to me… And when I sent you to Yancy…" Her mother sighed a little tired. "I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe…?"

_She knows… She truly knows…_ Was Aria knew mantra as stared at her mother.

**Just be happy that she forgot that little talk you two were going to have. **Kurama said in a low tone and he was right. She really didn't want to talk to her mother about and the Fates, so it was good that Sally seemed to have forgotten about it.

"They told me that keeping you close was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Aria –the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."

Aria blinked.

"Wait… My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

Kurama narrowed his eyes as he hummed, thinking about her mother words and everything that had happened till now. **Do you think that –**

"Not a school," Her mother said softly. "A summer camp."

**So it has something to do with that card the goat boy gave you.**

Aria really wanted to stare at her mother with a blank expression or just face palm.

_Really? A summer camp of all things!_

**What had you wanted? A resort or spa?**

_I don't know… Anything but a summer camp._

"I'm sorry, Aria," Her mother said after a moment of silence and seeing how the girl eyes were a little distant. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

_Ok…! Do you remember when I said that I wanted to see more demi-gods? _Kurama hummed. _Forget it. I wouldn't leave my mother alone. I hate good-byes._

Kurama didn't say anything for a while as Aria closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. **But kit… What about your uncles?** Her lips trembled as tears formed in her eyes. She had forgotten about her uncles for a moment. **You don't have a choice. We need to find this place so we can have more clues of how to find their possessions…**

Aria sighed and looked at the sky as she placed a hand above her eyes. _As Shikamaru would say… Troublesome…._

**00**

That night, Aria had a vivid dream, what was surprise since Kurama had control over her dreams, so he made sure she didn't experience any form of nightmare or dreams that would make her scared.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth – and it wasn't Kurama, as much as the deep voice was similar to the fox when he still liked to scary her at night –, goading the animals to fight harder.

Aria found herself running toward them, knowing she had to stop them from killing each other, but to her irritation, she was running in slow motion. Aria couldn't help but feel sad and desperate because she knew she would be too late. She saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and snapping her eyes open; she screamed, _No!_

**Kit, I couldn't do anything about this dream, someone was blocking me. I'm sorry… **Aria nodded, happy that Kurama had tried to make the nightmare stop and since someone had stopped the fox from helping, it wasn't his fault.

Placing a hand above her chest, Aria tried to control her breath as she looked at the window, sighing as she saw the storm. It was just the type of storm that she hated, the kind that cracked trees and blows down houses. The lightning that was making false daylight made her shudder and hug herself as she tried to focus her attention in the twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

_I-It's getting worse. _Aria thought as tears formed in her eyes. She took a deep breath as Kurama chakra involved her in an invisible cloak. It was a sign that if needed; he would take over. And Aria was happy, because she was sure that if that storm got worse, she would be frozen in fear.

As another thunderclap came, Aria flinched and her mother woke up. She sat up, eyes wide and said; "It's a hurricane."

Aria really wanted to roll her eyes at this, but she just could stare at the sea. Kurama on other hand, showed his disbelief at his mother words by facepalming. **Really? I didn't notice it.**

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand started to approach them and with her heightened senses, Aria could hear someone breathe with difficult, like they had been running a marathon. This person, in a desperate tone, started to yell while pounding on the cabin door.

Aria forced herself to get up as her mother sprang out of her bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. Different from her mother, Aria knew that something was going to happen sooner or later, so she was wearing e green-eyed girl, who was wearing a long-sleeved, light blue blouse with a high collar and dark blue pants (Even if she wasn't Narumi anymore, she still liked to use clothes similar to the ones she had seen or used while in the Elemental Nations so most of the clothes she had were made with a Chinese style and most of her shoes were sandals).

**Kit, what's the word that says in this situation? **Aria blinked and stopped putting her black sandals before looking at Grover who was standing framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. She stared at her friend till she understood what Kurama was trying to say.

Aria opened her mouth before her lips twitched a little. _Duh._

**Yes… Well, duh! How come we never found it out? That Mr. Banner guy smelled like horse and he's a centaur, now this boy smell just like a goat and we didn't even thought he too could be half animal.**

_Is ok, Kurama, you couldn't have known that Grover was a goat in disguise._

"Searching all night," Grover gasped. "What were you thinking?"

To Aria surprise, her mother looked at her in terror and she doubted it was because Grover wasn't human.

"Aria," Her mother said… No, it was more shouting so she could be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

Aria placed a hand behind her head and smiled a little nervous before looking at Grover who was staring at her like he couldn't believe what she was doing.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" She blinked. **"**It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

Aria didn't answer; she was more focused with others things like how Grover had just spook in Ancient Greek. _Zeus and the other Gods? Is this meant to be a curse or something?_

Kurama sweatdropped. **How… Creative…**

Aria winced when her mother looked at her sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before;

"Aria! Tell me now!"

Knowing that she could escape or make a dramatic scene, as she always did when someone yelled at her, the girl nodded and made a summary of what had happened since the trip to the museum, telling her mother about Mrs. Dodds and the old hags of the Fates. As she talked, Sally stared at her, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. Now if this was what Sally looked like at hearing about those two incidents, imagine what she would look like and do if she ever heard about the monsters she had fought since she was a little child and about her reincarnation!

Her mother grabbed her purse, tossed Aria her black hoodie (Bigger than her or not, her hoodie was really warm and there seals there that made sure that she would stay warm even if she was walking in the middle of the South Pole), and yelled; "Get to the car. Both of you! Go!"

Grover ran – no, he was trotting – in the direction of the Camaro – as her mother took Aria arm and shoved the green-eyed girl – who just had time to take her backpack and seal it away (Aria didn't even try to understand how Grover and her mother hadn't seen the backpack disappear when it touched a small tattoo in the palm of Aria right hand) – inside the car.

**Calm down, kit! You can't panic now!** Kurama voice made Aria take a deep breath. She hadn't even noted that she was panicking again. The girl hugged herself as she tried to ignore the lightning made by her Uncle and focused her attention to her instincts.

The storm wasn't what she needed to worry about now. Something was going to happen and Aria knew that she needed to stay calm or she wouldn't be in condition of fighting.

After all, she needed to protect her mother and Grover.

**00**

They tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. Aria, with Kurama help, could see clearly, but she was really curious to know how her mother could see anything. Though she didn't ask and her mother kept her foot on the gas.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, Aria jumped a little (She doubted a normal human could see her movements) and Grover, who was sitting next to her in the backseat, looked like he wanted to disappear.

Uncomfortable with both the silence and the situation, Aria said the first thing that came to her mind; "So, you and my mom... know each other?"

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind them. Aria was sure he was looking for any monster or enemy that could be following them and the young kunoichi was sure that there was something following them.

"Not exactly," Grover said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

This made her raise an eyebrow. "Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I _am _your friend."

Aria smiled at him. She knew that he was her friend. After years being betrayed by those who were meant to be her friends, she developed a natural detector of _Fake Friends_.

"So… You're a satyr?" At Grover nod, Aria raised an eyebrow. "And you saw Mrs. Dodds?" Another nod, this time he looked more nervous, shuddering at the memory of the old hag. "Why didn't you tell me and always said no?"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious.

Aria facepalmed, ignoring the confused way he looked at her. _Too late for that, Grover, I have known too much for years now._

**This explains why so many monsters started to appear after you found out about your father.**

"We put Mist over the humans' eyes." Grover said. "We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

"Who I am?"

_A kunoichi? A reincarnation? A Jinchuriki? A Demi-God? I'm so many things…_

Aria opened and closed her mouth, forgetting what she was going to say when she heard the sound of something approaching them. She clenched her fits and narrowed her eyes. Whatever was chasing them was bigger than she thought.

This wasn't going to be an easy fight.

"Aria," Her mother said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"You know who's after me?" She added, not wanting that they would notice her lack of surprise. "There's someone after me?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

_Uncle Hades hates me… _Aria thought, her lips trembling.

**Kit; now is not the right moment for your antics. Stop being dramatic. The Lord of the Underworld do think that you're the reason his Helm disappeared! **Aria nodded slowly.

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

Her mother made a hard left. The car swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and _PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES _signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" Aria asked confused, her eyes focused in the shadowed figure that was still following them.

What strawberries had to do with their situation?

"The summer camp I told you about."Her mother's voice was tight; like she was trying for to not be scared for Aria's sake. Not that girl was scare of what could possible happen to her or of what was coming. She had fought against the Sanbi and trained under Killer Bee, the Jinchuriki of Gyuki, to control Kurama's powers. "The place your father wanted to send you." Aria narrowed her eyed.

The shadow was getting closer.

"The place you didn't want me to go." She said a little distracted, narrowing her eyes even further.

Speaking of Killer Bee and Gyuuki… Was her impression or that thing that was following them was…

She growled with wide eyes as realization hit her. _Damn! Why it is always me that get the strong and difficult to kill opponents?_

**Kit, you were blessed with extreme luck at gambling and others aspects of life… But when it's an opponent… **The girl shivered at his next words and how much problem the guy had given her.** That Shark man for example.**

"Please, dear," Her mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old hags cut yarn…" Aria whimpered at the reminder of the Fates. Though she was more worried about what her uncles' weapons and how she would get it back.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to... when someone's about to die."

Aria blinked and turned to look at Grover pointing an accusatory finger in his direction.

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in _me._"

"I meant _you, _like 'someone.' Not you, _you._"

"Children!" Sally yelled exasperated.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and Aria saw that the shadowed figure was closer. A dark fluttering shape now lost behind them in the storm. The green-eyed girl frowned.

_I was right…_ Sometimes she just hated it when she was right.

"Do you know what that was?" Aria asked, hoping that someone would prove her wrong.

"We're almost there," Her mother said, ignoring her question."Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

Aria wasn't sure where _there _was, but she found herself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting for them to arrive. She didn't want to fight that thing. Not when her mother and Grover could get hurt in the process.

There was nothing but rain and darkness outside of the car and the empty countryside made Aria think of many horror and creep movies she had seen her life and stories she had heard. It didn't make her fell very well because it was almost a sign that things weren't going to end well to her.

Aria opened her mouth to speak when she felt a presence approach the car. It wasn't the shadowed figure that was following them. It was something a kin to her father power.

**Kit!**

There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling _boom!, _and the car exploded.

Aria closed her eyes and groaned as she felt like she was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. Taking a deep breath, she peeled her forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "_Kuso! Sore ga itai!_"

It had truly hurt. Kurama and her Uzumaki bloodline could heal her, but they couldn't do anything about the pain.

"Aria!" Her mom shouted a little desperate. The woman knew that the green-eyed girl just talked in Japanese when she didn't want to other people to understand her or when she was annoyed or hurt. And Sally doubted it was the first option.

"I'm okay..." Aria said as she shook her head a little.

She was fine. Not dead yet. But fine.

Aria sighed as she looked at the car, shuddering as she came to the realization that the car hadn't exploded. The driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. This type of damage hadn't been made by a explosion.

**Lightning. **Kurama said in a low whisper.

Her uncle had tried to kill her. She paled but decided to distract herself from thinking that her uncle wanted her dead to look at the big motionless lump that was next in the backseat. "G-Grover!"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Aria started to shake him, her lips trembling as she tried to remember if she knew any Medical Ninjutsu or how long it would take to create a healing seal. She didn't want her friend to died. She didn't want him to die in front of her.

Not like Haku had. Not like Zabuza had. Not like Yagura had. Not like the Sandaime had! Not like Shisui had!

She had lost them all! None of them should have died, but they did and she had been useless. She couldn't help them in the end.

When Aria was almost sobbing, he groaned "Food,"

She laughs then. He was alive!

"Aria," Her mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.

Aria eyes got wide and she looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, she saw a figure lumbering toward them on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made her skin crawl.

She couldn't fight that thing with her mother and Grover there, they would get hurt.

Aria felt sick for a moment.

"Aria," Her mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

Aria stared at her mother as she threw herself against the driver's-side door, but it was jammed shut in the mud. The green-eyed then tried to do the same thing with hers, but it was stuck too.

She looked up, at the hole in the roof. It might have been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking. Kurama could protect her from it, but her mother and Grover didn't have a demon fox in their gut to help them with this type of thing.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" Her mother told her. "Aria—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

Aria stared at her mother with a blank expression. She wasn't Narumi anymore, but she still had the same views, morals and dreams. She would never leave her mother behind. No one would be left behind if she could do something about it.

Kakashi hadn't been a good teacher but what he had told her at the bell test, she never forgot; _Those who break the rules are trash, but those who leave their friends and comrades behind are worse than trash. They're scum._

_"What?"_

Another flash of lightning made Aria turn her head a little. Through the smoking hole in the roof she saw the tree that her mother was talking about: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill. Aria knew that there was something different about that tree. Something spiritual, she noted after a moment. There was someone trapped there.

Placing this information in the back of her mind, she turned her attention back to her mother.

"That's the property line," Her mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

Her mother face was pale and her eyes as she opened her mouth to protest.

"No!" Aria shouted. "You _are _coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

The man – monster –kept coming toward them, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, Aria knew that she would do anything to make sure nothing happened to Grover or her mother. Even if it meant that she had to use her powers in front of them.

"He doesn't want _us_," Her mother told me. "He wants _you. _Besides, I can't cross the property line."

Aria wanted to roll her eyes and scream: Yeah! I know that he wants me! But I don't care. But then she heard the part about the property line and her mind shout down for a second.

Her mother had said _I_ not _we_.

**A barrier against mortals? **Kurama was voice was so weak and low that she almost didn't hear him speak.

If it was the case, then she could always create a seal to destroy this barrier or change it. She would find a way.

"But..."

"We don't have time, Aria. Go. Please."

Aria narrowed her eyes and across Grover, pushing the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! Forget it! I am not leaving you. _Help me with Grover_."

Aria didn't wait for her mother to answer; she scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, so didn't have much problem carrying her. So she almost protested when her mother came to help her, but she decided against it. Is not like she could explain how and why she was stronger than normal humans. Maybe blame it on her god blood?

Together, they draped Grover's arms over their shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

Glancing back, Aria narrowed her eyes as she finally got a clear look of the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of _Muscle Man _magazine. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

Aria cursed at her mind. _Sometimes, I hate it when I'm right._

Aria blinked the rain out of her eyes as she glanced at her mother by the corner of her eyes. "Mom—"

"Pasiphae's son." Her mother said. "Names have power."

_Names are very important. Names have power. It doesn't matter if it's living or not, once you give it a name, you embodied that person or object with the same amount of power. _Aria quoted, ignoring Kurama annoyed grown. But the fox didn't say anything knowing that she was trying to calm herself.

Aria growled like a wild animal when she noted that the pine tree was still way too far, a hundred yards uphill at least. Maybe she should create a few Shadow Clones to carry her mother and Grover? They would get there faster if she could run in her normal speed (Or just take her weights, they made her feel like she was a slowpoke and it would make possible for her to carry both Grover and her mother).

She glanced behind her again, teeth grinding when the bull-man hunched over their car. As he placed his head near the widows, Aria knew that he was trying to find their scent. Then the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

"Aria," Her mother said, making the petit girl look at her. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

Aria blinked. She could very stay behind as her mother and Grover run and fight the bull-man without a problem, but her mother plan wasn't so bad. "How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

Aria eyes got wide in panic. He'd found them.

She looked in the direction of the tree, it was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker; and Grover would have made things easier if he was running and not being carried.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of them.

Aria noted that, different from her, her mother was completely exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Aria! Separate! Remember what I said."

Aria didn't want to split up, but Kurama screamed at her, telling her to follow her mother orders for now. Nodding, she sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the monster bearing down on her. His black eyes glowed with an emotion she knew as much as she knew herself. His eyes were filled with hate.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at her chest. Narrowing her eyes, clenched her fits and focused a little of chakra in her hands. Mixing her fire and water nature chakra, she wasn't really good at it, but Mei had taught her a thing or two about creating others types of chakra nature. Having fire, lightning, water and wind natures, Aria could create and use a little of Lava, Ice, Boil and Storm. But she liked to focus on her water and wind Jutsus and her Fuuinjutsu. She could do some much with Fuuinjutsu.

Aria ignored her mother screams as she controlled the lava that was forming in her hands.

When the bull-man was close of her, she punched him with as much strength as she could, watching with a satisfied smirk as he was thrown backward, knocking several trees in the process and she could see that one side of his face seemed to have been clearly disfigured by the lava she had used.

To her annoyance, the monster rose, bellowed in pain and frustration and turned. Aria heart almost stopped when she noted that it wasn't toward me this time, but toward her mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

Aria looked around her. They'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side she could see a valley, just as her mother had said; and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away.

She needed a plan and fast.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing her mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Run, Aria!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

Aria watched in horror as the monster charged her. Her mother tried to sidestep, as she'd told Aria to do, but the monster hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"Mom!"

She caught Aria's eyes as the girl run in her direction and managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around her mother's neck, and she dissolved before Aria's eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash; and she was simply ... gone.

Aria felt like her mind had broken in that moment and all she could think was that her mother was gone. Then the images came to her mind making her sick. Haku bleeding, Yagura petting her head with a grateful smile as he coughed blood, Zabuza crying as he looked at the body of his surrogate son, the Shinigami taking the Sandaime's soul and Shisui bleeding in the river with empty eye socks staring at her.

_She's gone!_

**Kit! Breath! Please kit! Calm down! She is alive! It feels like the technique your father used to teleport himself or how that hag had disappeared. She's alive.**

But Aria wasn't listening.

"No. No. No!"

Without meaning, she tapped into Kurama power and was surrounded by a layer of red, wispy chakra and negative emotions that made the bull-man give a fell steps back and whimper in fear and pain. Her hair grew a little longer, the whiskers marks in her checks – the ones same ones she had as Narumi and that were almost invisible in this life – started to widen and thicken as her eyes change color to red and became slitted, plus her nails and canine teeth started to longer and sharper. All and all, she looked like a wild and dangerous animal.

Kurama couldn't do anything but continue to talk and calm herself. She hadn't tried to use his power and this life and she didn't have control over it. And all that angry she was feeling would just transform her into a mindless killer. He needed to calm her.

When the bull-man approached Grover, who was laying helpless in the grass. Aria snapped, pushing the air and roaring. The girl gave a bloodthirsty grin as the bull-man was shoved away from her friend and before he could recover, she disappeared and appearing again behind him and kicking the monster head, throwing him a few meters away.

With a bigger smirk, the chakra around Aria started to get denser and Kurama knew that he had to stop her when the grass beneath her feet started to die. Aria disappeared again, but Kurama knew that was just pure speed, and kicked the bull-man in the chest making him give a roar in pain. She was ready to stab him in the chest with her hand when Kurama finally had enough. Aria was already feeling guilty for letting her mother be taken away; the girl would enter in depression if she started to go in rampage.

**ARIA! **Clawed hands stopped a few inches away from the monster that, in a flash of golden light, was blown away in chunks by the wind, much like how Mrs. Dodds had disappeared.

"Food!" Grover moaned, but was ignored.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. Aria stared at the place where the monster had disappeared, her eyes changing back to their green and the chakra around her being absorbed back to her body by Kurama.

Tears formed in her eyes and her knees started shaking and her head felt like it was splitting open. She sobbed and at that moment she didn't want nothing more than lie down and cry, but as she was a shinobi wasn't she? She had to control her emotions. Her emotions were what made her act like an animal. Her emotions made her weak. Wasn't that what Sasuke had told her one time?

Shinobis were nothing more than weapons. A _Jinchuriki _was nothing more than a weapon.

Emotions weren't needed.

**Kit… She's alive… **Aria nodded at Kurama words but it didn't stop her from feeling like she was worthless. She could have saved her mother, but she stood there, watching as that thing strangled her. **Your friend is still there…** Kurama murmured, trying to make her think of anything that wasn't her mother.

Getting up, Aria walked in Grover direction with a blank expression and tears streaming down her face. As she finally reached him, Aria sighed and sat next to him, not wanting to move. She didn't care about that camp anymore.

Kurama, knowing that she needed to rest and that there was someone approaching them started to make her sleep. The girl smiled a little, grateful at the action. But before she closed her eyes and lost her conscience, Aria saw a familiar-looking bearded man and a blonde girl.

They were looking down at her, and the girl said in a tone that almost made Aria want to hit her. It made her remember of Sakura, and it was annoying. "She's the one. She must be."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "She's still conscious. Bring her inside."

_Watch them for me, Kurama… Don't let them touch me. I don't want to be healed, you'll do it for me… Please…_

His positive answer was the last thing she heard.

**The Road to the Camp Half-Blood**

**So, Sally was kidnapped by Hades, Aria used the Initial Jinchuriki Form and now she finally got the camp! **_**Dun dun dun!**_

**Anyway! More than one person asked me about the parings and if Aria will end with Apollo! My answer is: **_**I have no idea**_**! I was thinking about making her end with Apollo or Hermes. I don't know yet… But it can be another god too. But her paring will be a god, just so you know. Sorry those who wanted her with a demi-god…**

**Hope you liked it this chapter! And please; Review, Follow and/or Favorite! Or you can always send me a PM!**

**- Cissnei.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**Just so you know:**_ I never do something without a reason, so be assured that there's a reason for everything I write. If the answer for any question that you have isn't in the chapter that you're reading, please, wait a little that it will appear in the future._

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**The Camp Half-Blood**

Being a mass of chakra, Kurama never really cared about anyone. Not after his father died and everyone rejected him and his siblings because they were too powerful or too dangerous. They called the Bijuus demons, and a demon was what they turned to be in the end.

Today, he can say that he's much better than before and that now he can feel things like regret and guilt. But before Aria reincarnation… Well, he wasn't what you could call _good_ (not that he's_ good_ today) and he doubted he was too different from before.

At the Elemental Nations, he was much more resentful and possessive. His favorite possession being Aria – or Narumi as she was called at the time.

_He_ had always been with her. _He_ was the one that protected and healed her. _He_ was the one that gave her comfort. _He _was the first to stop and teach her what she needed to know to survive. She was always smiling at _him_. She was always talking to _him_. _He _was everything that she needed to be happy!

He had made sure to not have anyone in his way to have the girl affection to himself.

The first two hadn't been two difficult. The Yondaime and his wife made so she would never see them as family. Aria had always been a here and now person, so she was completely indifferent to them and respected them for fighting till the end to protect their village. But what she saw as rejection of their part, created an Aria that wanted nothing but attention and someone to tell her that they were there for her. He intensified that feeling and took advantage of it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't someone he cared. The man was old and weak and got himself killed by the one he loved as a _son_. Aria had considered him as a grandfather figure, but Kurama doubted the girl even knew to difference the relationship of a leader and his subordinate to a relationship of a Grandfather and his Grandchild.

After the old Monkey; came the blasted Uchiha Shisui, the first of the four teachers that had been useful in Aria's life as Narumi. He had been the only one that accepted the little six years old and newly graduated girl as his student. At that time, Kurama had already placed in her mind that no Uchiha could be trusted, but Uchiha Shisui destroyed that notion. The blasted boy hadn't been like the others members of his clan. He was a happy go lucky child and loyal; he didn't enjoy killing people and always thought about the good of his village.

Aria stayed with him for three years, till Aria's ninth birthday when she was sent to fight alongside the Rebels of Kirigakure (And no, he didn't convince her to go because he knew Danzou Shimura wanted the boy dead… Oh, no! Why would he?). The Civil War was the first time he suppressed Aria memories; he really didn't want her having nightmares about all those people she killed. She knew that she had fought, but the girl had no idea of the things she had done.

While in Kiri, she trained under Mei Terumi and the auburn haired woman companion' Aoi; those twos were the ones that taught his container the art of chakra manipulation and how to mold it into sub elements. She stayed with them for a few months when they asked her to use her Bijuu Cloack to fight and kill the Yondaime Mizukage; Yagura – The Jinchuriki of Isobu, the Three-Tailed Turtle.

When Yagura freed himself of the Genjutsu made by an Uchiha (which was the reason that he started to hunt anyone with bloodlines in Kiri), Aria saw the opportunity to have a friend that knew the pain of being a Jinchuriki and maybe, an older brother figure. This was something he didn't want to happen so, controlling her arm; he killed the man before Aria could stop herself. Yagura didn't blame her of course, Kurama was sure the man knew that _he_ had done it and why.

With Aria becoming depressed because of Yagura's death, Mei and Aoi convinced her to find another Jinchuriki to train her so she could use her Bijuu chakra. Like this, nothing would happen and Konoha and she wouldn't lose control again.

As result of this "suggestion", came Killer Bee (The last teacher he would admit that he liked). The Jinchuriki of Gyuuki, the Eight Tailed Giant Ox. The _haiku_ obsessed idiot had taught her how to use a staff (Something she wanted to learn in Yagura's honor), got her out of her depression and helped her control her Bijuu chakra before sending her back to Konoha.

When the council saw that the almost ten years old was being considered a hero in Kiri and that she was alive, they found a stupid excuse ("You pranked the ANBU HQ, so you shouldn't be Gennin! Go back and learn to be a true shinobi!") to have the girl demoted to an Academy Student again. Shisui Uchiha had tried to protect his student, but nothing he did helped her and the council placed her in the same class as the Clan Heirs saying that she was student that failed the graduation exam two times already.

Kurama was really disappointed when he noted that the old Hawk of Shimura hadn't killed the Uchiha boy yet, but he got his wish a few months later when Aria found the body of her teacher bleeding in the river and his eyes socks empty. Half of the village said that it was suicide and the other half accused Aria from killing him. The nights after that, Kurama made he forget, after all, he didn't want her to turn into an empty shell because she believed that she, in fact, had killer her older brother figure.

With Shisui death, there was no one in the village that could say that they had a place in the girl heart. It was him and only _him_.

Aria decided to make herself a dead last in the Academy, though she started to take this new role to another level (acting like stupid even when she wasn't in the Academy). Because of her position, she was placed into the Team 7 where the Rookie of the Year, the Top Kunoichi and the Dead Last were made into a team.

Sasuke Uchiha was what made him hate the Uchihas more.

It was always the Uchihas that made everything difficult to him! And the boy started to get Aria's attention. The girl wasn't even aware that her affection for him didn't have anything of _'I love you because you're my brother' _there.

When the boy killed her, it was like Shisui Uchiha and Yagura all over again. She was just a newborn baby at the time, but he could feel her getting depressed. But this time, he made sure to make her forget her feelings for the boy so she wouldn't have to pass for more therapy sessions (not that Killer Bee called that theraphy it was more like: I want you to everything in your way and feel the freedom of being a Jinchuriki!). He too decided to take her love for Konoha, her independence, part of her skills as shinobi and sealed part of her emotions.

The seals he placed on her active later than he wanted and ended creating some side effects. He never thought those side effects would consist of her creating a little obsession on her new father or that it would make her have fear of something so ridiculous like lighting.

He regretted his choice of sealing all those things in her mind because he started to see that _he_ was the one that was making Aria unstable. He regretted his choice because _he_ was the one that was making her gat confused about who she is (Is she a Kunoichi or is she a Civilian girl?).

He regretted his choices because he changed a little after almost losing Aria to the Death God and he didn't want to control or manipulate her, he wanted her to be herself and not his little puppet.

And above all, he hated the fact that the Aria truly started to love her father and her new family along the years. And he hated to know that she would ignore him for a long time if she found out about the seals he had placed on her.

"I never thought I would see this thing again…" The fox sighed.

Sitting in his haunches, Kurama stared at the seal in front of him, raising his hands so he could make some modifications to it. It wasn't much, but the kidnapping of Sally Jackson and Aria's use of his chakra would be the breaking point that could make the green-eyed girl notice what he had done. And he didn't want it. So those modifications would make so Aria would act like the shinobi she was without the girl even noticing that something had been wrong in the first place.

"Bless Mito Uzumaki's soul and all the knowledge of Fuuinjutsu that she passed to the Jinchurikis after her." Kurama muttered as he watched both seal and Aria mind change. The sewer got larger and it was you could breathe with more ease there.

Fuuinjutsu is most known as being a Jutsu that seal objects, livings beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object or person. Fuuinjutsu can also be used to unseal those objects either from within something or someone. What what most doesn't know is that Fuuinjutsu can too be used to manipulate someone, summon the Death God or any other creature, create barriers, create others means of communication, manipulate the temperature of an enclosed space, etcetera.

The members of the Uzumaki Clan from Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools were specialists in the art of Fuuinjutsu, to the point that their nation was eventually destroyed due to the fear others had of these techniques. The most well-known seal master from this Clan was a man called Arashi Uzumaki who had been Mito Uzumaki's father, because of this the first container of the Kyuubi no Yoko learned everything that she could from her father even memorizing theories from scrolls that she couldn't understand.

Before Mito died as she passed the burden of being a Jinchuriki to Kushina Uzumaki, she used a seal to transfer all her knowledge of the Uzumaki Clan. The same seal Kushina used in her newborn daughter Narumi.

Since he was sealed inside the girl, he had access to this knowledge and different from those humans, he could understand everything that Arashi Uzumaki had left behind. And from what he was seeing in this seal he had created, it was making Aria's unstable because there was an imbalance in the seal.

How he hadn't seen it before?

Kurama sweat dropped before nodding to himself and continuing his job.

Seals that suppress emotions and powers/capacities are considered an even-numbered seal while seals that suppress memories are considered odd-numbered seals. And as Arashi Uzumaki always said: An imbalance is created when an odd-numbered seal is placed on top of an even-numbered seal and vice-versa.

He could take the seals that suppressed Aria's emotions and powers/capacity, but he would let the Memory Suppression Seal. That girl wasn't ready for this.

"I just hope I won't regret this choice…" He muttered as he closed his eyes and focused his energy to heal any injury Aria had gotten in her little fight against the Minotaur. Knowing that anyone that even touched her would be burned by his chakra, he sighed and walked away from the seal with the intent of finding a good place in his cage to sleep.

**00**

Aria eyes snapped open as she felt like someone had just tried to suffocate her. Placing one of her hands on her throat, she sat down while trying to normalize her breathing. After a few minutes, she closed and opened her eyes while taking one last deep breath and sighed with relief when she finally calmed down. The last time something like this happened was when Jiraiya removed the Five Elemental Seal that Orochimaru had placed on her. What didn't make sense since she only had storage seals and gravity seals in her body. So there was nothing that could mess with her chakra circulatory system (or her Tenketsu) so she would have this type of reaction.

Shaking her head, Aria looked at her body for a moment, her eyes looking for any injury. Not finding anything, she turned her attention to what she recognized as an infirmary.

She blinked her eyes a few times and narrowed her in the direction of one of the more shadowed corners. Seeing that something was hiding there, she clenched her fist and her body tensed, ready to fight if needed.

Aria didn't even stop to think about how long it had been since she used her fighting instincts or how long it had been since she acted so distrustful – not without Kurama saying that she couldn't trust what she was seeing anyway –. To tell the true, the last time she had acted like that was just a few days after she had realized that Poseidon was her father. After that, she had started to separate Aria from Narumi and she started to be more civilian then shinobi, even if she could be very well called a Monster Slayer.

_Kurama? Do you know what's going on? _She waited for a while but he never answered.

Narrowing her eyes, she tried to look for his chakra but it was dormant, as if he had used all most his energy and was now sleeping. Knowing that she wasn't going to get a answer, she got up from the bed and looked at the hiding person.

"What do you want?"

The person moved a little and Aria relaxed as she finally noticed that their chakra wasn't hostile as she had thought, so this meant that it wasn't an enemy. Or they were very well trained and knew how to control their aura like a professional.

Standing in the corner of the infirmary, was a man who looked like a typical blond surfer. Aria blinked her eyes several times and even tried to dispel what she thought to be an illusion, but it wasn't. The man in front of her truly had over hundred blue eyes all over his body.

After a few seconds of what Aria started to call a staring contest (and he was winning! It wasn't fair, he had too many eyes!), she recognized the man as Argus; her Aunt Hera's creation and servant.

"Hello, Argus… How are you doing…?" She asked a little hesitant and to her surprise, he gave her a bright smile. Since he hadn't opened his mouth to speak, Aria deduced that maybe he couldn't talk or he didn't want to talk so she considered that smile as a positive answer. "Good to know." Aria smiled at him before relaxing completely.

Ignoring the man (Would it be better if she called him a giant? She didn't know) for a moment, Aria bit her thumb and unsealed her backpack. Argus seemed really curious and confused as he looked at her backpack as if he couldn't believe that thing had appeared out of nowhere. That or he just couldn't believe that a demigod could do something like this. Aria really wanted to see his face when he saw her use the Henge.

Arai placed her backpack in the bed and opened it; taking two of the five scrolls that was there. Opening one of them and placing it in the ground, she bit her thumb again to extract more blood and started to write and draw in the scroll. The seal she was making wasn't too difficult (for her anyway) and it had always been really useful in her missions. She called it the _Exchange of Clothes Seal_ (Yeah, it isn't creative, but almost all seals in existence doesn't have a creative name) and by standing on it and doing the right hand seals (Tiger - Ram - Dragon – Rat – Snake - Tiger) the scroll will absorb the clothes you're using and exchange it for others clothes. The other good part of this seal is that any clothe that is absorbed by the seal will be repaired or cleaned automatically.

Finishing the hand seals, Aria waited for the smoke that the seal create to clean up so she could looked at what she was wearing. It wasn't much, just a sleeveless T-shirt underneath a light blue, high collared athletic jacket adorned with several buttons and the kanji for _'Sea' _written in black on the back, a short black leggings and converses with coloring similar to her jacket.

"Ta da!" Aria said with a grin, her hands in her waist as she made a pose. She was really happy when Argus played along and stated clapping with a grin in his face. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Humming, Aria tied her hair into a high ponytail and unsealed her weapon pouch, placing it in her right leg (Why she hadn't done it before anyway?). Finished with her little task, she sealed her scrolls and tossed them back into her backpack that was already on her right shoulder.

She turned her attention to Argus who was holding a box. "Hum… Where should I go?"

Argus closed his eyes for a moment as if he was thinking and then nodded to himself. He then held the box to her. Aria blinked and pointed to herself.

"For me?" He nodded.

Blinking again, Aria accepted the box and opened it. Inside, she saw a familiar black-and-white bull's horn, the base was jagged from being broken off and the tip was splattered with dried blood. It was the Minotaur horn, but how? Hadn't he disappeared? Mrs. Dodds never left anything behind when she had destroyed the old had. Too bad… The old Hag would have made a cool accessory.

Narrowing her eyes, Aria thought a little; trying to understand why he was giving it to her when she remembered one of the traditions of Iwagakure and the Iron Country.

"Ah! It is a spoil of war! Right?" He nodded.

Aria grinned and stared at the horn for a while.

She couldn't use it to a fight… So what she would do with it?

_Ah! I know!_

Biting her thump, that had already healed at this point; she started to write on the horn before making a hand sign. The horn glowed and in the next moment it disappeared and was replaced by a small horn earring that she was more than happy to place in her left ear.

"So? What do you think? Is better than carrying a horn around."

Argus blinked and shook his head before grinning and giving her thumbs up.

"So!" Aria said, clapping her hands. "Are we going now to wherever I need to be?" Argus nodded and waved his hands so she would follow him.

They walked out of the infirmary and Aria didn't know for how long they walked since she was more focused on play with her new earring, but when she finally looked around her, she noted that they were walking into a deck. It was furnished with lawn chairs, which some of them had pillows and blankets on them, and tables like a vacation home.

Aria smiled as she saw how good the view from the deck was. The meadow was beautiful and made her a little nervous as she felt a bit nostalgic; it was really similar to the landscape that existed outside of Konoha and where Shisui liked to take to their lessons.

There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley, she noted, was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one was the one with a huge pine tree on top. It was the same pine tree that had felt like something spiritual, like a human soul, was trapped there.

Shaking her head, Aria decided to think about it at another time and turned her attention to Argus that had stopped to walk to wait for her. She blinked her eyes and smiled apologetic, she hadn't even noted that she had stopped walking, and started to walk again. But not before she gave one last suspicious glance at the tree.

When they finally reached the opposite end of the house, Aria's jaw dropped as she at what she saw.

They must have been on the north shore of Long Island since the valley on this side of the house marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like they came from a book on Ancient Greek architecture -an open-air pavilion, and amphitheater, a circular arena-. Everything was extremely preserved and appeared to be completely new as if she had just travelled to the past.

In a nearby sandpit, she saw a dozen of older kids and some satyrs playing volleyball (She hated that sport, baseball and tennis was much more fun and interesting). Canoes glided across a small lake and children wearing a bright orange T-shirts were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods, others were shooting targets at an archery range and others rode horses down a wooded trail… Aria blinked her eyes and grinned, feeling excited. Was she hallucinating, or she was seeing some Pegasus there?

Taking her attention of the scene in front of her, continued to follow Argus down at the end of the porch where a man sitting at a card table with a annoyed look in his face as he looked at the cards scattered in the table.

The man' aura was really similar to her father, but weaker. Though, weaker or not, the amount of power that he had made Aria shiver and her hand twitch as she started to create a small dagger with solid water. The man had a chubby face, a red nose and curly hair so black, that it looked to be purple. He was wearing a tiger-patter Hawaiian shirt and his watery, blue, bloodshot eyes made it clear to her about who he was.

His eyes were what gave away his identity.

_What's he doing here?_

"You'll be standing there like an idiot or you will sit down?" Her eyebrow twitched.

Aria didn't want her family to treat with such indifference. It didn't matter that her cousin didn't know who she was, she wanted his – and all the others – respect and maybe love… With this in mind, Aria tossed the dagger in his direction. Her cousin took the dagger in midair and held it so tightly that the object broke into bubbles. Raising his head, Dionysus' eyes narrowed and the temperature around her began to decline. Not wanting to show herself as someone weak, Aria narrowed her eyes and used a bit of hers and Kurama' chakra and focused it on God in front of her, doing everything she could so that God of Wine would just feel the power and the negative emotions that were present in the chakra - or aura, since she was just using the spiritual half of the chakra.

The two stayed like that for a few minutes till Aria spoke. "Do not ignore me, _Itoko_." He raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

His eyes flashed for a moment before he hummed, nodding to himself as if he had just confirmed something.

"Be respectful, _Umi no Gaki_." Aria smirked.

Ah! So he knew who her father was!

"Earn my respect first." He snorted and waved his hands. At the retreat of his aura, Aria did the same and stared at him as he collected the cards. He said something in Greek to Argus (It was too fast for her to understand) who smiled a bit (though his hands were shaking and he couldn't stop looking at her by the corner of his eyes) and took a sit in one of the chairs around the table.

"Do you play pinochle, sea brat?"

The green-eyed girl grinned like a fox the whiskers in her face get darker as she did.

"Prepare to lose cousin of mine for I'm Tyche's favorite Half-Blood!"

A few hours later; Argus was staring at the card table with disbelief, Aria was grinning like someone had just told that her father was coming to visit her and Dionysus… Well, Dionysus was twitching in his chair while feeling a vein throbbing in his forehead.

The girl wasn't joking when she said that she was lucky favorite. She really had been blessed by Tyche; there was no other explanation for what he was witnessing.

He hadn't won one single game! He lost at: Pinochle, All Fives, Auction Draw Dominoes, Blackjack 21, Football Poker, Flower & Scorpion, Jiăn Hóng Diăn, Pai Gow, Poker Menteur, Royal Casino and Zsírozás.

Hell! There were games that he had to explain the rules for the brat but she still won! It wasn't normal!

It wasn't _fair_!

"I win... _Again_!" She smiled and Dionysus knew that the brat was laughed at him internally.

He clenched his fists so tightly that Aria had to raise an eyebrow. Her cousin looked like he would explode at any moment. Her smile widened and he growled.

Sitting away from the two, Argus was watched the scene in front of him as if he was in a tennis match. Dionysus began to say that the petit girl cheated somehow and then the two began to insult each other like two little kids.

The servant of Hera sighed and curled in his chair.

Where was Chiron when he was needed?

**00**

When Chiron finally found Aria Jackson, who had disappeared from the infirmary, he never thought he would see her with Dionysus or that the two would be looking like two trembling puppies as a little girl scolded at them. The little girl in question wasn't older than eight years old; she had long mousy-brown hair and cozy eyes of red fire that, in the moment, wasn't so cozy.

He could understand their fear. Hestia could be really scary when she wanted.

He watched in amusement as Hestia said things like "Young ladies should not use words so vulgar!" or "What kind of education your father gave you, Dionysus? She's just a child! You must be a good example and not teach her more vulgar words!". Aria and Dionysus only nodded their head while refusing to look into Hestia's that were more like fireballs.

Taking pity on the duo, he approached them. The three turned their attention to him and he almost laughed as Aria and Dionysus sighed relieved, glaring at each other as if accusing the other of mimicking their actions.

"Ah! Chiron, you're finally here!" Hestia smiled.

"Yo, old man!" Aria waved with a big grin in her face.

"Young lady..." Aria whimpered as Hestia narrowed her eyes.

"H-Hello, Mr. Brunner. Is a pleasure to see you again sir. How have you been in this fine day?" Hestia nodded satisfied and glared at Dionysus that laughing at the young girl. The God of Wine flinched and looked away from them while trying - and failing - to look innocent.

"Hello Aria, Mr. D…" The two nodded their head. "My Lady, is something wrong here?"

Hestia placed her hands in her waist and tapped her foot on the ground looking like a mother who was losing her patience with her children.

"Argus came to me so I would stop those two –" She looked at Aria and Dionysus. "from killing each other because of a stupid game."

Aria pouted.

"I don't see what the problem is! I won fair and square."

Dionysus glared at her. "No one has so much lucky, you must be cheating!"

"Silence!" They winced while murmuring 'Yes, Hestia/Auntie Hestia'. "Now, Dionysus, I think you have paperwork to do." She pointed to the Big House. The God of Wine nodded and walked away, stopping in the door of the Big House. He turned and glared at Aria that was more than help to return the gesture.

"Good bye, Alaíde Johnson."

"Good bye, Mr. Dango."

He narrowed his eyes. "Little cheater."

Aria crossed her arms. "Sore loser."

"Children!"

"Sorry…"

Chiron chuckled as Hestia rubbed her tremble and sighed a little exasperated.

He was sure that with Aria in the Camp, nothing would be the same again.

"Well, now that you're here, Chiron, I'll be going." Hestia smiled at Aria that returned the smile with her eyes shining with happiness. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Aria my dear."

"See ya later, Auntie Hestia!" Aria waved to the Goddess until she disappeared from view. Sighing, Aria turned her attention to him. "So, Mr. Brunner? Since when you are a centaur?" He raised an eyebrow.

Honestly, he expected another reaction from the girl.

He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything, he finally noted something. Was he just hallucinating or Aria had used the word _'Auntie' _before Hestia' name?

**00**

After a long explanation about the Gods, Monsters and the Olympus, Chiron (aka. Mr. Brunner) gave Aria a rather nice tour (not before asking her some questions, of course. "The horn? Is my new earring! Cool eh?", "What? Ah, Auntie gave me permission of calling her Auntie". Though all the answers Aria gave to him just made him more confused. How the girl even transformed a horn into an earring?). Aria was rather annoyed with the attention everyone was giving to her, she had thought she would avoid it if she didn't have the Minotaur's horn in her hands, but she had been wrong. Their attention made her think of how the civilians from Konoha liked to talk behind everyone – her – back. And every time someone pointed in her direction and said something like _'It is her'_ she glared at them (Uchiha's Glare #25, it always work), making them flinch and avoid her eyes.

Most of the campers, to her happiness ("Thank you Kami and Dad for small miracles"), were older than her, meaning that she wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of irritant brats as she had thought. The satyr were bigger than Grover – maybe they were older than her friend –, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.

Looking back at the farmhouse she blinked her eyes. It was a lot bigger than she had thought — four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort.

Aria was ready to turn her attention back to Chiron when she felt like someone was watching her near the farmhouse. Narrowing her eyes, she saw a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. She doubted that what was there was human. The aura there was of something cursed.

Maybe she would visit that place when she found the opportunity for it. She knew some seals that could exorcise ghosts and break curses.

Uzumaki Seals and Fuuinjutsu in general were awesome like that.

Shaking her head, she continued to follow Chiron.

They walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed told her that the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He then said that Dionysus had this effect on fruit-bearing plants what surprised Aria a little. She had thought that it had been her Aunt Demeter or one of her children that took care of the strawberries… Well, the children worked there, but it seemed that Dionysus was the one that made the work easer.

As she watched the satyr play his pipe, she thought about Grover and asked Chiron if her friend would be in trouble since he had something about having another charge before her and he hadn't done his job and protect her. This question ended with Chiron telling her about the satyr ambitions and about his job and how it had been his second, and maybe last, chance of taking care of a demigod.

She winced at those two words. Second chances weren't something that existed in the Shinobi World. The White Fang of Konoha was example of it. The man had failed his mission and ended killing himself because of the shame he had brought to his village and to himself.

"So, how old is Grover? He doesn't look much older, but his eyes…"

"Ah, twenty-eight."

Aria blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Aria. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."

Aria scratched the back of her head. She was sure that all those troubles that Grover was involved were because of his first failure.

She looked in the direction of the pine tree. Maybe the tree had something to do with it?

"Come, Aria. Let's see the woods."

As they got closer, Aria gave a big smile as she realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick. It was just like this world Forest of Death. She sighed. She missed that place and the giant animals and plants that lived there.

"The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed." Chiron said.

_Stocked? Stocked with what? Monsters?_

"Stocked with what?" She asked.

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

"I don't need any type of weapon or a shield." She said before Chiron decided to answer for her. "I have everything that I need." Aria gestured to her backpack.

"Are you sure?" He asked with disbelief but she just nodded her head with determination.

_A Shinobi using a shield? Ha! I'm not a member of the Temujin Continent or the Iron Country!_

As the tour continued, they saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much. She, on other hand, was really happy. She loved to talk to horses and those weren't any horses… They were _Pegasus_!), the javelin range, the sing-along Amphitheatre, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Just sword and spear fights? Is it possible to use others weapons or others styles of those weapons?" She asked.

A Naginata was a spear, wasn't it?

"It depends of what style you're talking about. Are you thinking about a weapon from another country? I know you love Japanese Culture. Maybe a Naginata?" She grinned and nodded. "So, yes. You can use it… Anyway, it is Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually." The girl snorted. "Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

After that, he showed her the cabins and this was the part that made her frown. There were just _twelve_ of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side.

Twelve cabins meant that just the Children of the Olympians had a place to stay. What about the minor Gods like Hypnos, Hecate or Iris? What about her Aunt Hestia or her Uncle Hades?!

Where was the respect for them? Aunt Hestia was a virgin goddess, but Aria saw a cabin for Artemis so she should have one too. And her Uncle Hades was a member of the Big Three! It didn't matter if he was the Lord of the Underworld or that he didn't have a seat in the Olympus! He, and all the minor gods, deserved a cabin for his – their – children.

What were those people that made this place thinking?

Aria groaned.

It was going to be the Uchiha affair all over again!

Those Gods that are being ignored, isolated and treated like nothing will, one day, decide to make a coup d'etat (or anything like this) against the Olympians and a war will start. She was sure of it.

She sighed as finished to look at the cabins. All of them faced a common area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered, she saw Hestia tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. The goddess turned her attention to Aria that grinned and waved to her. Hestia chuckled and waved back.

Focusing her attention back to the cabins, Aria saw that the pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.

Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

Aria hummed. "Big Z and his loyal wife?"

Chiron chuckled. "Correct,"

"So… I can understand the Aunt Hera's Cabin being empty… But, why Uncle Zeus is the same? I thought he would the one with a big number of children here."

Chiron looked at her as if she was crazy but she shrugged, not really caring about what Chiron was thinking. They were her Uncle and Aunt, she always called them that and she wouldn't stop now. She would do what she wanted to do.

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Aria blinked her eyes and looked around. Indeed, her father Cabin and Artemis Cabin were empty.

Aria stared at her father Cabin, looking at it with wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor.

Touching the door, Aria smiled a little when she felt her father energy inside the Cabin. Not thinking about what could happen, she walked inside.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that!" Chiron said. But she ignored him.

Before he could pull her back, Aria caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down.

But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. She frowned. Didn't she have siblings?

She ready to walk and see what she could find there when Chiron placed a hand on her shoulder and said; "Come along, Aria."

Sighing, she followed him, looking one last time at the cabin with sadness. She truly wanted to stay there. But Chiron had already told her that she needed to be claimed first and while it didn't happen, she would stay in the cabin eleven.

She placed her hands behind her head as she stared at the others Cabins. Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside Aria could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared.

The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on Aria and gave her an evil sneer. Not liking it, Aria narrowed her eyes and used a little of Kurama chakra to make them flash red for a moment. She smirked when she saw the girl flinch and look away.

"Hey, Chiron! Are you the only centaur here?"

"Yes…" Chiron said sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."

Aria nodded, thinking about anything that could change the subject of their little talk. "You said your name was Chiron. Are you really..."

He smiled down at her. _"The _Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Aria, I am."

"Cool! But I thought… Well… Shouldn't you be dead?"

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about _should _be. The truth is, I _can't _be dead. You see, eons ago" Aria blinked. What the hell were _eons_? "the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

Aria hummed. She doubted anyone would like to be teachers for so long at the Elemental Nations. There were Shinobis that always trained one single team and then just left the job of being a teacher behind because it wasn't what they had signed when they decided to be a shinobi. Others thought that being a teacher was just a mission, or so most of the Chunnins that taught at the Academy just worked there because they didn't have another chance and needed to do the mission.

She frowned.

Now that she thought about it. Iruka had been the only teacher at the Academy that she knew that truly liked his job.

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

_Depressing?_ Aria looked at her feet for a second. Maybe it was. To train someone, to learn about them, to feel proud of them and then have his precious students killed at a young age or before they could even truly know what life was like.

Yes… It was depressing.

"Oh, look," Chiron said, making Aria look at him. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

A blond girl, the same blond that she had been there when she blacked out at the night of her little fight with the Minotaur, was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven. The girl eyes were gray much like others campers Aria had seen near the Cabin six.

Aria narrowed her eyes.

_Cabin six... Wasn't that Athena's Cabin? _Her eyes narrowed further before a smirk made it way to her face. _Oh ho! This one is going to be designate as 'Enemy' in my Bingo Book. I don't like her anyway._

Aria made a pause.

_But… Maybe I should give her a chance…_

When they reached her, the girl looked Aria over critically. Aria raised a eyebrow as the girl then snorted arrogantly.

Forget about any chances I was going to give her…

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I think you remember Aria?" The girl nodded as Aria crossed her arms. "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Aria from here?"

"Yes, sir."

Aria almost groaned.

Why her?

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told Aria, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Aria smiled a little as she saw the cabin. Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin. It was simple, but gave the warming feeling that truly made her feel welcome. Aria thought that maybe it was because it would make the unclaimed children and the ones that hadn't a cabin to feel like it was their home.

She blinked as she saw caduceus at the doorway.

Ah… She was going to stay in her Cousin Hermes Cabin then…

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Aria shook her head sadly as she saw sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. If they had more cabins this won't be happening.

She was sure that her Auntie Hestia won't mind if the unclaimed children stayed in her cabin… If she had one that is it…

Chiron stayed where he was and Aria wasn't surprised to see all the campers bowing respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Aria. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

Aria stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at her, sizing her up. Aria crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"I know I'm beautiful, but you don't need to stare so hard. I swear I'm real and not something made from your dreams or imagination." Some of them looked amused while others snorted to hide their smile.

"Well?" Annabeth said rudely. "Go on."

Shrugging, Aria entered the cabin and raised a hand in greeting, interrupting that Annabeth was about to speak.

"Yo, I'm Aria Jackson, nice to meet ya!" She grinned. "I'll be staying here for a while, so take care of me."

"Regular or undetermined?" a boy asked.

Again, Aria interrupted Annabeth. And she was doing it on purpose just so you know.

"Undetermined." Some of them groaned making her snort. "Yeah, yeah. I feel the love already… Bastards..."

"Father is not married. Why? Are you interested?" A girl said with a grin making Aria stare at her with a blank expression.

"Ha ha." Everyone chuckled and Annabeth crossed her arms displeased.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.

"Now, don't joke like that." They ignored him while muttering something about their future step-mom making Aria snort. She was sure they weren't going to stop calling her that. "Welcome, Aria. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."

Aria stared at the boy who was about nineteen. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile – a _fake_ friendly smile –. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. He too had a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw. It looked to have been made by some type of claw or knife slash.

This boy… Aria inclined her head as she focused her attention to his aura.

He was someone that could give some problems in the future. He was so fake and his aura didn't show anything more than ambition, vengeance and resentment.

This one was a possible spy or a traitor.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said. Aria almost face palmed. The girl truly was like Sakura. Her voice even sounded like Sakura when the pink haired girl was talking about her precious Sasuke.

Aria shivered as felt her heart jump. She then prayed for the Fates that Annabeth wasn't Sakura reincarnation because if she was, she was going to make the girl food for the fishes in the sea. The sharks were rather intelligent; maybe they would give her something in exchange of a free meal?

"He's your counselor, for now."

"Yeah, I know. I'm staying here since I'm undetermined. Yada yada." Annabeth glared at her but Aria just glared back, smiling proudly when the girl flinched.

"This is right," Luke smiled. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

Patron. Not father…

Ah the boy has some deep daddy issues.

**And you're obsessed with your daddy and is afraid of being rejected by him.** Aria blinked.

_I'm not obsessed with my dad nor do I fear rejection. _Now this was a lie and she knew it. _So,_ a_re you awake now Kurama?_ He didn't answer making her sigh.

Placing her backpack in her tiny section of floor they'd given her, Aria active the security seals (Hello? Cabin of the God of Thieves? She wasn't going to trust them to not touch anything). She looked around at the campers' faces and narrowed her eyes.

"Try to touch anything that is mine and you're dead. No one will find your body nor will you have proof that I did anything. Understand?" They all nodded, some of them flinch and the others gulping.

Two boys, twins she thought, grinned and saluted.

"Yes, Future Step-mother!" Everyone laugh – not Annabeth, of course, the girl was so boring –. Aria rolled her eyes.

"So… How long will do you think I'll be staying here?" Aria asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined." Aria stared.

Translation: Do not have so much hope of being claimed, there are some of us who have never been claimed. They were forgotten.

She winced. How sad… It must be so sad. Most of those children must think that their parents don't think they are worth.

Aria sighed. Did her father think that she was worth enough to be claimed? Was she good enough for him?

"Come on," Annabeth said. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"Not interested." Aria said, looking rather bored. "I already saw it."

"Come on." The blonde growled as she grabbed Aria wrist and dragged her outside. Aria ignored the children in the cabin that said something like 'Bye step-mom' and narrowed her eyes. She could very well hurt the blonde, but she would wait and see what she wanted.

When they were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

Aria crossed her arms. "Pardon?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

Aria twitched. This girl was going to get hurt if she didn't talk like a normal person or stopped being so annoying.

"What's your problem princess?" Aria growled. "All I did was kill a stupid bull-man and I got a cool earring from it –" She said pointing to her new accessory, but before she could continue, the blonde hissed.

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth said. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

Aria laughed. The tone in her voice said so much: You're just a little girl! You don't know anything! I know more than you and trained more than you! I should have been the one to kill that monster.

Ah, she truly was like Sakura!

"It will get you killed, blonde."

"What –"

"Your pathetic jealousy. It will get you killed one day. If it doesn't kill you. Your pride and I'm-better-than-you attitude will."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes but Aria just smirked.

If she was like Sakura then…

"You needed to stop thinking about your little Luka and concenter in surviving." Aria snorted. The girl needed a serious wake up call. She may know how to fight, but outside of the Camp protection, Aria doubted she would last. The girl was mentally weak for something like this. She would freeze just Sakura had done and then someone else would have to save her little life over and over again till she start to understand what she has to do in her life.

"Y-You –"

"Know more about fight and survival than you. Her me, and hear me well, _little girl_ for I'm your worst nightmare. Don't think that because you have been her longer that I'm weak. And if you look at me like I'm just a little worm again, I'll crush you!"

Not again! Not anymore! She wasn't going to let everyone treat her like she's weak, like she's the dead last! She's a Kunoichi! A trained assassin! She was the daughter of Poseidon and proud of it! She was going to show everyone how power she was. She was going to show her father that she was worth of being his daughter!

Annabeth opened and closed her mouth, her body shaking as she took a step away from Aria that took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes, looking in the direction of four girl that were walking in their direction. The big girl from the red cabin was walking with three others girls that looked just like her.

_Half-sisters maybe?_

"Well! A newbie!" The big girl said.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. Aria snorted at the nickname. She had one similar to Sakura that was Bubblegum Princess. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

_''Erre es korakas!"_Annabeth said. Aria raised an eyebrow.

'Go to the crows!'? Those Greek insults were starting to get starting to get more stranger. Dionysus had taught her some when he had been screaming at her because she won at Poker.

"You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched.

She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"

"Aria Jackson," Annabeth cleaned her throat. "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

Aria shrugged and said lazily; "Yo!"

Clarisse frowned. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

Prissy? It was the best she could say?

"Oh? Don't tell me..."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Annabeth sighed and looked at Aria with a little of fear and curiosity, as if she wanted to know what was going to happen. The green-eyed girl ignored the blonde and grabbed Clarisse's wrist before the girl could do anything. She raised an eyebrow unimpressed at the big girl who was looking at girl with surprise in her face. Taking a page from Tsunade's book, Aria flicked Clarisse's forehead and blinked when the girl was thrown away, not stopping until she had destroyed some trees in the forest.

She hadn't used so much strength at this little attack for Clarisse ending flying away. Aria looked at her hand and shrugged.

Well, one more mystery to add to her list.

Annabeth jaw dropped and Clarisse sidekicks took a few steps away from her.

Aria sighed. "Too easy."

And with this, she walked away, humming to herself as she thought about dinner. She hoped that they had ramen in this camp.

**00**

Aria wasn't surprised when word of her super strength spread immediately (The members of the Hermes cabin were calling her Super Mom now because having a Super Mom was better than having a Step-mom. Really, where's the logic on this?). Wherever she went, campers pointed at her and murmured something till she glared at them. Her mood was getting worse when Annabeth started to stalk her. The girl was going to get herself drowned if she didn't stop. Had she already forgotten their little talk? It seemed so.

Even if Annabeth was annoying, she too was useful. The blonde showed her a few more places: the metal shop (Where Aria made a list of weapons she wanted and the kids were more than happy to try something new and accepted her request, especially after she told them that she knew Theodore, he was their older brother it seemed), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of the God Pan), and the climbing wall – this one made her a little interested. The climbing wall consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders and sprayed lava. Because of her chakra nature she was immune to lava and she could use that to practice a little.

Finally they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Yeah… Bye bye…" Aria said, literally shunning Annabeth as she looked at the lake. Annabeth growled a little and walked away.

Aria looked at her back and chuckled.

_I'm really starting to think that she is Saukura reincarnation or this dimension counterpart of the annoying fan-girl._

Annabeth stopped for a moment and looked at her.

"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.

"Who?"

"Not who. _What_. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."

Aria crossed her arms. Now this had just been random.

She sighed and looked at the lake, smiling a little as she felt the wind touch her face.

As she was ignoring Annabeth that hadn't still gone away, Aria looked for something that could distract her. What she didn't expect was to see two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if Aria were a long-lost friend.

The girl did the same thing and grinned since she could feel that those two had some type of connection with her father.

"They are Naiads."

Aria turned to the blonde with a blank expression.

Who asked you? Is what she wanted to say. But she was too tired to be rude at the moment.

"I see…" And with this, Aria waved and used the Shunshin to get away from the blonde.

**00**

At cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, Aria noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. Those, she knew, were her Cousin's children.

She waved and rolled her eyes at some of them and seated next to the twins that were playing a card game, though she didn't know what game it was. The counselor, Luke, came over after a few seconds.

"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "You backpack seems a little small, do you need anything?"

Aria shook her head.

"I'm fine, but thank you."

He stared at her. "If you say so…" Luke sat next to her making the girl narrowed her eyes for a second. But she didn't do anything when her pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"

"Hm… Not much…" Aria said as she watched the twins. "But it is a little difficult to believe that gods exist…" She said, playing the clueless and disbeliever girl for a moment. She wanted to see what he was going to say.

"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

The bitterness in his voice confirmed all her suspicious. He was resentful.

_This information is going to my Bingo Book…_

"So… your dad is Hermes?" She asked.

The reaction she got wasn't too far from what she thought it was going to be.

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. He was looking rather indifferent. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The one with the Messenger God, right?."

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."

"You ever meet your dad?"

"Once." Aria nodded and stared at the ceiling.

She hoped she could meet her dad one day…

Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Aria. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

_Mostly good people… You're not one of them buddy._

She heard a snort and a murmur.

Nodding, she repeated Kurama question.

"Annabeth said something about going to the Oracle, do you know why? And the girl said more than one time that I might be 'the one.' Do you know what she meant?"

Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."

"What do you mean?"

His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."

"Somebody special?"

"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."

The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Aria smiled a little as she noted that it was a conch shell.

Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"

The whole cabin, about twenty children (Aria included), filed into the commons yard. They lined up in order of seniority, so of course Aria was dead last, something that made her bow her head depressed. She didn't want to be the dead last! Why she was always the dead last?

Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion and Satyrs joined them from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods. They must have been Nymphs, Aria thought, since they literally came out of the wood. Aria blinked when she saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.

In all, there were about a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads. Aria memorized their faces and started to count how many children was there in every cabin so she could place the information on her Bingo Book.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. Aria whimpered as she had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half her butt hanging off. This was what she got from being the dead last…

Aria saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Dionysus, a few satyrs, and a couple of boys that she was sure that were Dionysus children. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

Annabeth sat at table six with her siblings and Clarisse sat behind Aria at Ares's table. The later was all patched up and looked like a mummy (Aria was really surprised that she could even move), but she was till laughing alongside her siblings and friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

As the Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and barbecue. Aria bowed her head depressed.

"I wanted ramen…"

Hearing this, a Wood nymph smiled a little and snapped her fingers. When Aria looked up, she started to cry dramatically as she hugged the nymph who blushed.

"You're my new favorite person in this word! Teach me your awesomeness! Teach me how to make ramen appear from nowhere!" As she let the Nymph go, she stared at the bowl of Pork Ramen. "Ramen! My Precious! I missed you so much!" Everyone in the table snorted and chuckled.

Aria sniffed and looked at her empty glass. Then Luke said; "Speak to it. Whatever you want nonalcoholic, of course."

Aria blinked. "Cherry Coke."

The glass filled with caramel liquid.

Her eyes sparkled. "Orange Cherry Coke."

The soda turned into a familiar shade of neon orange that made her think of her old jumpsuit.

Squealing like a little kid, Aria drank her Coke before looking around her, everybody was getting up so she followed them and took her bowl of Ramen with her since she saw that they were all carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.

"Come on," Luke told her, making Aria blink at him.

As she got closer, Aria saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.

She almost punched Luke when he murmured in her ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."

Aria snorted but didn't say anything because of the way Luke was looking at her. He approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

Aria was next.

"For you Dad…" She made a pause and eat a little of her precious before throwing the rest in the fire. "Auntie Hestia, Uncle Hades and the minor gods… just… Just to show that you hadn't been forgotten and that there's someone that still believes that you all need more attention and respect than what people give you…"

Aria blinked her eyes and smiled as she sniffed the air. It didn't smell like burning food, but a combination of smells. Each one unique and different. Aria was sure that it represented all those gods she had just made the offering to.

Returning to her seat, she asked her new best-friend (the Nymph that could make ramen) for more of her precious. In response, the nymph smiled and snapped her fingers again making not one, but three big bowls of ramen appear!

She really needed to learn how to do that!

Aria ate happily and chatted to the nymph that was more than happy to answer her questions about nymphs. Time passed, and when Aria finally paid attention to what was happening around her, everyone had finished eating and Chiron pounded his hoof again to gain their attention.

Dionysus got up with a huge sigh.

"Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

Aria frowned as a bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Her cousin continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Arianne Jameson."

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Aria Jackson," Dionysus corrected, narrowing his eyes in her direction for a second. Aria grinned. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered and headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. Aria watched as they sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores (she loved s'mores) and joked around.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and all campers filed back to their cabins. Aria felt something pushing her to the ground, as if gravity was starting to get crazy around her. Eyes wide with realization, she created a Shadow Clone and placed a seal on it that made it more durable.

Just when she finished the seal, she blacked out.

**00**

Aria opened her eyes to find herself sitting on a cloud. Swallowing hard, she looked around and paled. Not knowing if she wanted to be happy or afraid that she had been summoned to the Void, for the temple that she was seeing on top of one of the clouds was the sign that she was in the house of the Dragons Summons.

Aria clenched her lips. The Dragons summoned her... How? Why?

Had something happened? They just called her to their home if they wanted to talk about something really important.

"Welcome back, my dear reincarnated Summoner." Aria gulped and turned her head slowly.

In front of her was giant Easter Dragon, he had horns of a stag, sharp teeth, scaly green skin, red eyes, four toes on each foot, a long serpentine body (his tail toke up three-fourths of his length), long flowing whiskers, a long snout, crescent shaped nostrils, and flowing green hair on his cheeks.

Aria took a deep breath and bowed her head in respect.

"Lord Shenron"

Something was truly wrong! Sheron was one of the Elders of the Dragon Clan. Whatever they wanted from her was really important.

Aria groaned. She truly hoped they weren't calling her because of the same motive of the last call she received from them.

"H-How did you find me?"

He was silent for a moment, his eyes shining with pure power as answered. "Different from others Summon Clans that use blood to bind the summoner to them, the Dragon Clan use both blood and soul." Aria nodded. He had explained this to her when she signed the contract. Shenron had said that she would never be separated from the Dragons. "We knew that you had been reincarnate and started to search for you." His lips twitched a little into an almost smile. "We never thought that you would end as a demigod though. And daughter of the God of Sea! Your familiar was really happy to hear it"

Aria blinked and smiled.

"Leviathan?! He's still my familiar!?"

"Ah yes, a familiar bond can't be broken so easy. He would have waited for centuries if it meant that he could be reunited with you." Sheron said. "But I didn't want to talk about him... I wanted to warn you about something."

"What?"

"Another great prophecy." Aria felt sick as she stared at him, waiting for the old dragon to start laughing and for him to tell her that he was kidding.

But he never did.

Aria groaned and face palmed. She had hoped he wasn't going to say this. She had escaped one prophecy already and now she had another?

_Who I pissed in my past life?_ She snorted. _Forget it. I pissed too many people to even find who was the one that cursed me._

She just hoped that this one would be easier to understand than the last one. She snorted again. Who was she trying to fool? Of course this prophecy was going to be a pain in the ass just like the last one.

_And people ask why I always try to fight the Fates and why I always refused to believe into something like destiny… I don't want, nor do I like to have, someone controlling all my life!_

**The Camp Half-Blood**

**So! When Jiraiya offered her the Toad Summon Contract, Aria didn't accept it because she had found the Dragon Summon Contract when she was just five years old. The Dragons is a Legendary Summons and had always been allied with the Uzumaki Clan. ****I'll talk more about them later… And yes, I got Shenron from Dragon Ball and the Leviathan is from Final Fantasy XIV.**

**Anyway! **

**Here's what Aria wrote/will write in her Bingo Books. She has three for now, one for monsters and immortal beings, one to the gods/goddess and one for the Demigods:**

**Bingo Book: Gods/Goddess**

**Entry #12**

**Name: **_Dionysus "Mr. D"_

**Title: **_God of Wine, Madness, Theater, and Vegetation / Director of Camp Half-Blood_

**Gender:**_ Male_

**Family: **_Kronos (Grandfather), Rhea and Harmonia (Grandmothers), Zeus (Father), Semele (Mother), Ariadne (Wife), Polux and Castor (Sons), Pasiphae (Mother-in-Law), Minos (Father-in-Law)_

**Affiliation: **_Olympians_

**Abilities: **_N/A_

**Treat Level: **_SS Rank_

**Entry #14**

**Name: **_Hestia "Auntie Hestia"_

**Title: **_Goddess of the Hearth, Home, and Family_

**Gender: **_Female_

**Family: **_Kronos (Father), Rhea (Mother), Demeter and Hera (Sisters), Hades and Poseidon and Zeus (Brothers), Chiron (Half-Brother)_

**Affiliation: **_Olympians_

**Abilities: **_Pyrokinesis _(Others abilities are unknown)

**Treat Level: **_SS to SSS Rank_

**Bingo Book: Demigods**

**Entry #01**

**Name:** _Annabeth Chase_

**Gender: **_Female_

**Family: **_Athena (Mother), Mr. Chase (Father), Athena's Cabin (Half-Siblings)_

**Affiliation:** _Camp Half-Blood, Olympians_

**Treat Level:** _C Rank _

**Stats:**

**Hand-to-Hand Combat: **_3 _**Weaponry: **_3.5 _**Intelligence: **_4.5 _**Strength: **_2.5 _**Speed: **_2 _**Stamina: **_2 _**Special Ability: **_0 _**Total: **_17.5_

**Note: **_Sakura Counterpart of this Dimension. She's annoying and will be considered as a permanent enemy if she doesn't stop acting like she the gift of the gods to humanity._

**Entry #13**

**Name: **_Luke Castellan_

**Gender: **_Male_

**Family: **_Hermes (Father), Ms. Castellan (Mother), Hermes's Cabin (Half-Siblings_

**Affiliation: **_Camp Half-Blood, Olympians_

**Treat Level: **_B Rank_

**Stats:**

**Hand-to-Hand Combat: **_4.5 _**Weaponry: **_4.5 _**Intelligence: **_4_** Speed: **_3.5_** Stamina: **_3.5 _**Special Ability: **_4 _**Total: **_24_

**Note: **_Possible spy or traitor. Treat with caution._

**Entry #24**

**Name: **_Clarisse La Rue_

**Gender: **_Female_

**Family: **_Ares (Father), Ms. La Rue (Mother), Ares's Cabin (Half-Siblings)_

**Affiliation: **_Camp Half-Blood, Olympians_

**Treat Level: **_B Rank_

**Stats:**

**Hand-to-Hand Combat: **_4 _**Weaponry: **_4.5 _**Intelligence: **_3 _**Speed: **_3_** Stamina: **_3 _**Special Ability (Telumkinesis): **_3.5 _**Total: **_21_

**Note: **_Too easy to manipulate and angry. Status Unknown, can be both enemy as an ally._

**Hope you liked it!**

**And please! Review, Follow, Favorite or PM me!**

**- Cissnei.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**Just so you know - Pairings: **_It'll be an Anime Harem (You know; that type of Harem where a bunch of people like the same person and have moments with this person but just one of them will win this person heart. Is like those Otome Games where you date different boys, but your character will just end with one of them. But the ones that have more chance to end with Aria are:_

_Jason/Aria, Leo/Aria, Hermes/Aria, Apollo/Aria, Hermes/Aria/Apollo, Jason/Aria/Leo or any other option that you guys have…_

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**And the Quest Start!**

Sitting in front of Shenron, Aria took a deep breath. After the dragon had announced that she was subject of another prophecy, Aria had decided to stay in the Void for a while so she could train and develop new techniques that could help her in the future. The problem was that she just couldn't clean her mind and focus in her task of creating a good idea that she could use.

In the end, Shenron got tired of waiting and decided to call one of the Elder Summoners that lived in the Dragon Temple and were Shinobis of the Uzumaki Clan that were granted immortality so they could teach the next generation of Summoners.

Aria was really surprised when the oldest Elder – and only woman of the group – walked in her direction with a scroll in her hands. She looked to be really young – early thirties or so Aria thought –, she had long eyelashes and violet eyes. Her long and straight black hair was kept neat with a red hairband and was wearing an elaborate, high-collared kimono with the Uzushiogakure symbol on the back of the obi which was tied around her waist. She also wore a dark shade of red lipstick and had a red-colored diamond mark on her forehead much like her descendants; Mito Uzumaki and Tsunade Senju.

Aria had never talked to her before, but Tsunade had showed her a painting of this woman before. Tomoyo Uzumaki was her name and she was the one that discovered and created what everyone in the Elemental Nations knows as Medical Ninjutsu.

Tomoyo stopped walking when she was already a good distance of Aria, staring at the girl before waving one of her hands. Knowing what the woman wanted, Aria got up and waited for her to talk.

"Lord Sheron told me that you're trying to create your own techniques?" Aria nodded. "Good… Do you know anything about Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation?"

Aria thought about it for a while.

Shape Transformation is an advanced form of chakra control and a technique that is pivotal for the manipulation of chakra and the creation of new techniques. It involves changing the form and movement of chakra, determining the size, range, and purpose of a technique. The Rasengan, for example, is described as shape manipulation that has been taken _'to the highest possible level'_. The Rasengan relies heavily on chakra control and does not require the use of hand seals.

Nature Transformation, on other hand, is an advanced form of advanced chakra control that entails the molding and defining of one's chakra into an innate type of chakra nature, altering its properties and characteristics. Nature transformation, along Shape Transformation, was necessary when creating a technique.

And while nature transformation changes the actual nature of the chakra, shape transformation allows a ninja to change the actual shape and actions of the chakra, altering its abilities.

_Wait… Rasegan is a form of Shape Transformation…_ Aria blinked and face palmed.

Why she hadn't thought about it before? Rasengan was already a deadly technique, all she needed to do was expand the original concept for it; mixing one of her chakra elements with the technique!

Tomoyo chuckled as if reading her thought.

She showed the scroll in her hand. "This scroll is for you; Lord Shenron thought that it would motivate you a little." She smiled as Aria stared at the scroll, the girl' eyes widening when she saw the name in scroll. When she reached to it, Tomoyo slapped her hand away. "Now, now… It is a prize, yes? You can't just take it."

Aria narrowed her eyes and cursed. She would get that scroll even if it was the last thing she would do.

"You're on, Granny."

She ignored how Tomoyo' eyebrow twitched at the nickname. The woman was just like Tsunade.

After a few hours, Aria was grinning like a madwoman as she stared at her new creation, the now called Wind Release: Rasegan. She had needed the aid of two shadow cloned and, in total, five hands (her hand to release and spin chakra, one clone to form the shell to maintain the sphere shape, and the other to mix Aria' wind-natured chakra to it). The technique looked fairly similar to the original, except it had four small white blades like protrusions surrounding it, making it look like a miniature Fuuma Shuriken.

Tomoyo though, wasn't really impressed and told her to keep trying or she wouldn't have the scroll. Aria to retain herself of not jumping in the Elder and attacking her with her new creation, but she just growled and continued trying to improve her new technique, maybe, if she could create something with an effect similar to the Bijuu Ball Tomoyo would give her the scroll? She needed something that could be a mass of destruction…

**Mass of destruction eh? I'm right here…** She blinked.

_Kurama! Why were you sleeping? I did nothing that could make you tired like this._

The fox snorted. **You didn't. I did. **She waited for him to elaborate, but he never did. **Now, I have a few ideas of what you can do so we can get out of this place. The Void has the tendency of trying to absorb my chakra and I hate this place.**

_Really? What Rank will this technique be if I use your ideas?_

**S-Rank.**

Aria blinked. _Are you crazy? Do you want to get me killed? My chakra control is not enough to control an S-Rank technique!_

**You want that staff or not? Because I'm sure you know that the Mizukage's staff is inside that scroll. **That silenced her. **Good. Listen to me because I'll just explain it only once…**

**00**

While Aria and Kurama were creating a new S-Rank technique, Cloria the Clone wasn't having an easy time at the camp as she would have wanted, not when she had lessons with Annabeth Chase _every single morning_ and having the girl stalking her! It was like the blonde wanted her to do something that would make her look bad.

Since that night when Aria was summoned to the Void by the Dragons, Cloria entered into a routine. Annabeth would try to teach her Ancient Greek in the morning (Keyword: _Try_. She really didn't need Annabeth' help and she made sure that the girl knew it by ignoring her and asking the help of her new friend Silena – a daughter of Aphrodite –).

After the Ancient Greek lessons, she would create more clones so each of them could participate of a different outdoor activity (She had a good laugh when Travis Stoll tried to tell everyone that there was more than one Aria running around but no one believed him, the poor boy kept staring at her as if she was a gift of the gods, she could clearly see him that he was trying to think of way to use her little ability to prank everyone and cause an little of havoc in the Camp).

Chiron had tried to teach her archery but she ended throwing the bow away in frustration after hours of trying and no success (Will Solace, one of her new friends had a good laugh at it, though he shut up when she threw the bow in his head).

At foot racing she would focus a bit of chakra on her feet and would make everyone eat dirt. The wood-nymph instructors even made her an honorary nymph because of it. They told her that they were really surprised with her since they had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.

When she entered in what she called the _Children of Hephaestus Dominion_ and created her own weapons (Kunais, Shurikens, a Kusarigama, a Naginata and she was in process of finding a way to recreate the Samehada) everyone in the camp started to call her Ninja Girl, though they didn't believe she could use those weapons. At wrestling, Chiron decided that after the incident with Clarisse, it would be better if she stayed away from it. At canoeing, she had been the best there and when riding the Pegasus, Silena – who had helped her learn how to ride – said that she was natural.

Hello? Daughter of Poseidon here! Not that anyone knew it… Speaking of her parentage! The senior campers and the counselors were watching her, trying to decide who her father was, but she was sure they weren't having an easy time on it.

She was strong than anyone at the Ares Cabin (This made her gain their respect and she could say that Clarisse was a tentative friend), she wasn't good with archery as the children of Apollo… Hephaestus's children were sure she was their siblings because of her skills with metalwork (She thanked TenTen for that) and her power of creating fire (She hadn't even know that they saw her using her lava/fire Jutsus when she was creating her new weapons). Dionysus was out of question and there was the possibility of her being Hermes's daughter, but she didn't even look a little similar to them (that and some of Hermes' children refused to believe she was their sibling).

All in all, she liked the camp. And it was in a Thursday afternoon – three days after Aria arrived at the camp – that she made this decision. It was her "first" sword-fighting lesson in her life, or so the poor children thought. Everybody from the cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be the instructor. This gave her the perfect opportunity to test his skills and to see how they would fare against Killer Bee' swordplay that he had taught Aria when she had stayed with him.

When it came to the dueling in pairs, no one commented when she took seven swords with her the moment Luke announced that he would be her partner. None of them dared to move as a sinister grin appeared in her face.

She hadn't found one single good blade, but this she still could use the ones that they gave her and she had already decided to make one to herself or ask Chiron for that sword that she had used asking the old hag of Mrs. Dodds.

"Good luck," One of the campers told her. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

The Clone blinked and the grin in her face grew bigger if it was even possible. "Oh? Don't tell me…"

**00**

Jaws dropped to the ground when the campers saw Aria holding the seven blades between the joints of her arms (left armpit, both elbows), right leg, stomach, the right side of her neck, and in her mouth. And as impossible as it sounded, she was using them with pure mastery. And because of the unpredictability of her movements, Luke was easily overwhelmed with all of the varying swings, for the campers, it looked like Aria was dancing, hip-hop dance to be more precise.

She was forcing the son of Hermes on the defensive with her style and the moment she found an opening; everyone winced at the large cut that Luke would receive when she impaled the blonde the boy with most of her swords simultaneously.

When the duel – not that they could call it duel – ended, Luke was breathing hard and it was possible to see that he was bleeding for almost all his body. He coughed blood stared at Aria with pure disbelief as just grinned at him while holding the seven swords against her chest.

"I-Impossible…" Shuttered the Connor while Travis just nodded his head.

"How the hell can she do that?" A little girl in the group muttered to herself.

"The question is where she learned it…" Luke said almost breathless.

"My rap obsessed teacher taught me that." A voice behind them made the campers turn round to see Aria with a hand in her waist. Like the Aria that had was holding the seven swords with a smirk, this Aria was wearing the camp T-shirt, jeans shorts and brown riding boots and was carrying a large, hook-ended staff which one end was larger than the other and there was a green flower located on the larger end.

They stared at the Aria with the staff and turned their attention back to the Aria with the swords and then back to the Aria with staff.

Silence…

"THERE'S TWO OF HER!"

"I told you guys she could clone herself!"

The two Arias crossed their arms and grinned as they watched Travis laugh while pointing to the two of them as the campers continued to scream, some of them had even fainted.

The two green eyed girls laughed. Messing with their heads was really fun. Maybe Aria should do it more times…

**00**

By Friday night, it was finally time for capture the flag and Aria was almost jumping of excitement since she never played those types of games at the Elemental Nations and in this new life she had stayed to herself in her childhood. She already had Yagura staff with her (It had taken days for her to finish the technique Kurama had suggested to her, but the moment she touched the staff that was in the scroll Tomoyo gave to her, she knew that it had been worth all the effort) and her pouch was tied around her right leg.

Aria squealed to herself (a few campers looked at her in fear. Knowing that she could clone herself wasn't something that made they think that this capture the flag would be easy) when the couch horn sounded and everyone stood in their tables.

As campers yelled and cheered, the petite girl frowned as she saw Annabeth and two of her siblings running into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.

From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her sidekicks ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Aria groaned. _Please tell me I won't have to listen to Annabeth of all people!_

She turned to Luke. "Do Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," He said, shrugging. "But often."

Aria facepalmed.

Oh no! What if they were allied to the Athena Cabin? She didn't want to do what _dear_ Annabeth wanted. If the girl was like Sakura as she thought she was, then the daughter of Athena would more like use her as bait to the Ares Cabin.

Aria crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes before a smirk formed in her face. Let her think that she would follow her orders.

"So… Whose side are we on?"

He gave her a sly look, and Aria snorted when the scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. It was if the torchlight was letting her see the boy true self.

"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena." Aria looked as if she was sick for a second. "Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And _you _are going to help." Aria shrugged as this. Is not like she had a choice… For now anyway.

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus.

Aria wasn't really impressed with Ares allies. Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there was only two of them so it wasn't much help. Demeter's kids just weren't made for this type of thing, they weren't the aggressive type. Aphrodite's sons and daughters made Aria want to bang her head in something, they were just ridiculous. There were exceptions of course, but Aria just couldn't see where they would help in this alliance. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.

Hephaestus's kids were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day and Aria knew that they would a problem; they were far more experienced with weapons than most campers.

And finally… Ares's cabin was a group of gorillas.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" He announced and Aria almost corrected him saying that she wasn't a hero, she was a shinobi. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

Aria smiled to herself and made a single hand sign saying "Kai" and in a poof of smoke her clothes changed. She had a fox-styled porcelain mask in one hand while she was holding a staff with a flower in the other. She was wearing grey flak jacket, metal arm guards and gloves and three ninja pouches on her back-waist.

The Aphrodite and Hephaestus Cabin looked at her and nodded. They were the ones that had made the ANBU clothes for her. Aria grinned as she placed the mask and rested Yagura's staff in her shoulder as she placed her free hand in the pocket of her black pants.

Luke stared at her. "Are you sure you will just use that?" The now masked girl nodded.

"Yeah, I don't need anything else."

"Are you really sure? You will end being skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol." Aria stared at him.

_Border patrol? Oh! So I'm truly the bait! Great! How fun!_

He handed her a helmet that and she shook her head and making a few hand sings and the marks in her mask changed to blue. The same blue of the horsehair in all helmets on Athena's side.

Seeing that she would just ignore him, Luke nodded.

Annabeth yelled. "Blue team, forward!"

Everyone cheered and shook their swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at them as they headed off toward the north. Aria created a clone that followed the group while she was jump from the tree to tree. As Annabeth talked to her clone, that just ignored the girl to the blonde exasperation, Aria looked at the Forest smirking as she thought about the second phase of the Chunnin Exams. Maybe this time would be no giant snake and a Pedophile to attack them.

As her clone was stationed next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, Annabeth and the rest of the group scattered into the trees and Aria positioned herself in the shadows, looking for any enemy.

She took a book from the pocket of her pant and started reading. Far away the conch horn blew. She ignored the whoops and yells, the clanking of metal, kids fighting in the woods. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past her clone like a deer (She snorted thinking of the Nara Clan), leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Sighing to herself, she placed her book back to her pocket and created another clone so it could stay in her place. Jumping from the tree, she ran in the forest till she found a group of campers from Demeter and Aphrodite cabin along two members of the Hephaestus Cabin. Making a few hand signs and jumping, she raised her hand.

"_Wind Release: Great Breakthrough_!" The campers looked in her direction, but before they could do anything a sudden gust of wind came out of her hand and blew them away, knocking a few trees in the process.

She run a little more, using her staff to knock anyone in her way and using her wind and water techniques to blew or wash the enemy away.

Aria stopped as she received the memories of one of her clones about the appearance of Clarisse. Aria sighed. She moved her staff and created two Water Dragons that nodded to her and disappeared in the forest to look for anyone from the Red team. Satisfied with it, she used the Shunshin to appear behind her the only clone that was still in position.

She watched for a while as her clone used a kunai against Clarisse and her spear. Noticing that she was there, her clone dispersed itself surprising Clarisse and her buddies. Shen clapped with a grin (not that they could see it) and jumped into the water, standing above it as she moved her staff.

Aria smirked. "_Water Release: Water Beast_!" She touched the water with the staff.

"Water what?" One of Clarisse friends asked.

Before they knew it a giant wolf-like beast made of water appeared roaring and walking in their direction. They tried to escape, but it was impossible. The beast launched powerful streams of water from its mouth and a simple sweep in the area with its claws created a powerful torrent of water that washed Clarisse buddies away. The girl would have ended the same way if she hadn't been holding on a tree if it was her life saver.

Clarisse coughed a little of water and stared at Aria with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but then they heheard yelling, elated screams, and Aria saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of his siblings covering his retreat, and a few Apollo' campers behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids that she hadn't knocked out. Not that the Apollo' campers fought for too long since her Water Dragons appeared and literally eat the Hephaestus campers making Aria laughed as the Dragons coughed the kids out.

Her allies stared at the Dragons who moved in her direction in great speed and wrapped themselves around her protectively.

Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

The members of the Ares Cabin and the few others members of the Red team that hadn't been caught by her Dragons staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. The blue team exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. They'd won.

Though Aria wasn't happy that she had been right and that she had been used as bait.

Seeing her Dragons face move, she turned her head to see absolute nothing standing in the place they were looking.

Aria narrowed her eyes.

Creating a clone without hand signs, she smirk when it move and kicked the air. Her smirk grew as she heard a scream of pain and the air shimmed and Annabeth materialized with a Yankee baseball cap next to her in the ground.

"Don't try to sneak on me again, _princess_. I don't like it." The Water Dragons growled making the girl shiver. "Oh, and if you set me up again, I'll make you pay for this!"

The girl winced as the Dragons eyes flashed red.

"It was the plan! Athena always, always has a plan."

Was she trying to excuse herself?

**Pathetic… **Kurama muttered in her mind.

Aria narrowed her eyes, not that Annabeth could see it because of her mask. "A plan to get me pulverized or killed. Do you really want to be my enemy girl?"

"I-I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but..." She shrugged, but Aria saw that she was still shivering in fear. "You didn't need help." She looked at the Water Dragons. "Did... Did you make them? They knocked down almost all members of the Red Team… They are made of Water right?" Aria eyes narrowed even further as she tried to understand where the girl was going with all that. "T-This is _not _good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."

Zeus? What was she – Ah! The girl thought she was her Uncle daughter?

Aria opened her mouth to speak when she heard a growl and howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, but Aria was to focused in what was coming to stop to understand what he was saying. She dispelled the Dragons and held her staff close to herself.

Annabeth drew her sword but she ignored the girl.

There on the rocks just above them was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers and it was looking straight at me.

Aria laughed to herself and sealed her staff, she wouldn't need it.

She heard Annabeth yell; "Aria, run!" But she was ignored again.

Annabeth tried to do something but both the hound and Aria were too fast. The hound leaped over to Aria that created two clones and smiled happy that she could use one of her two new techniques. With her _Wind Release: Rasengan_ in hand, she slammed it against the hound that cried in agony. It was thrown away and fell dead in the ground.

**Those monsters are too weak for an A-Rank Shinobi…** Aria ignored Kurama and looked at the hound in thought.

It had been really easy and Kurama was right in calling her an A-Rank Shinobi, so why she had problems against the Minotaur?

Chiron trotted up next to Aria, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

_"Di immortales!"_ Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Automatically, Aria looked at Luke by the corner of her eyes. Of everyone there, she was sure that it had been him.

They watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"You're wounded!" Annabeth told Aria that looked at her hand to see that it was bleeding from the use of her new technique. "Quick, Aria, get in the water."

"I don't have to listen to you, girl." Aria said, feeling annoyed. "It will heal."

"No it won't," Aria rolled her eyes. Is not like the girl knew what she could do. "If you're who I think you're then the water will help!" The annoying girl pushed Aria back to the Water. The petit girl would have hurt the blonde for it but she was more curious at what was happening and it wasn't because of Kurama or her Uzumaki blood.

As she touched the water, all the cuts her Rasengan had made in her hand healed instantly.

"Interesting…" Aria murmured.

Aria blinked when she noted that no one was looking at her hand but something above her head. Raising her head she saw seven holograms: the biggest one was of a trident (Aria almost jumped of happiness at this). And the others were: a Fleur-de-lis, a Four-Leaf Clover, a Flaming Hammer and a Dark Moon.

"What the hell?" Someone said.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is _really _not good."

Aria glared at her.

She loved her father. Thank you very much! There was nothing wrong in being his daughter! Was Annabeth trying to get herself killed?

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

Aria stared when everyone around her started kneeling.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer and Father of Horses. Iris; Rainbows and Lady of Messages. Tyche; Lucky, Fortune, and Chance. Hephaestus; Fire, Forge, Lord of Artisans and Craftsmen. Hecate; Magic, Ghosts, Lady of the Obscure and the Crossroads." He looked at Aria that blinked her eyes confused. "Hail, Ariadnê Jackson, Daughter of the Sea God." He made a pause. "Legacy of Iris, Tyche, Hephaestus and Hecate."

Aria blinked. And blinked again.

She grinned. "Awesome!"

**00**

The next morning, the first thing Aria did was move to the Cabin three. She didn't have to share with anybody so she had plenty of room for her possessions and her clones that claimed a corner to themselves so they could draw and write their plans for the Cabins to her Uncle Hades and the minor gods. If no one was going to give them one, she would build it herself.

She organized her books, Bingo books, scrolls and manga collection in a rather big shelf that was in the corner of the room. Her maps – including a map of the Elemental Nations – was placed in the wall. She placed half of her clothes in the closet while the other half was this in her with the Exchange of Clothes Seal, which sealed along her digital camera and album in her storage seal that was in the palm of her left hand.

While she was comfortable at her new cabin, life at the camp has changed a little. Sometimes, at dinner, she would sit together with her distant cousins (at Hephaestus table, or at Hermes table with Iris, Hecate and Tyche children) and now she could pick her own activities (not that it made difference, she would just send a few clones when there was more than one activity at the same time).

The problem was that most people was avoiding her like she was someone type of disease! She really didn't care since she still had her friends (Silena, Will, Clarisse and the members of the Cabin Eleven… Grover was avoiding her too). Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but she was sure that they were all talking about it behind her back.

The attack had scared everybody. To them, it sent two messages. One: that Aria was the daughter of the Sea God (and proud of it); and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill her. The campers were afraid that they could get hurt if they were too close to her.

Cabin eleven didn't change towards her. The annoying Annabeth was still teaching her Greek in the mornings (Why? Why? Couldn't she just have classes with a satyr or a nymph?), but the girl seemed distracted and Aria really didn't like it. She was planning something. Annabeth too tried to scold Aria for the most stupid things, but the petit girl would just growl at the blonde or knock her unconscious. She hated people calling her stupid.

Aria had to retain herself every time the blonde would walk away after the lessons muttering to herself: "Quest... Poseidon?... Dirty rotten... Got to make a plan…"

Aria didn't know what Quest she was talking about, but she was sure it had something to do with her Uncles' symbol of power. If the blonde thought that she could come with her to find her Uncles' weapons she was wrong.

To make things worse, someone at the camp (and she would find who, though she was sure it was Luke) dropped a mortal newspaper inside her doorway, a copy of the _New York Daily News, _opened to the Metro page. The article took just a few minutes to read with Kurama help.

_GIRL AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER_ _FREAK CAR ACCIDENT_

_BY EILEEN SMYTHE_

_Sally Jackson and daughter Aria are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken._

_The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding._

_Mother and daughter had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident._

_Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepdaughter, Aria Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past._

_Police would not say whether daughter Aria is a suspect in her mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Aria. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline._

Aria snorted as she focused a little of chakra on the paper and watched it start to burn. She threw it away and jumped in her bad. Oh, she would make Gabe pay! She wasn't Missing-nin, why would those people think that she was a suspect? She was just twelve!

**00**

Someone was in her mind and it wasn't Kurama. Was what Aria thought as she had one of the strangest dreams ever.

She was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.

About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green.

They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

It wasn't difficult to understand that was her father and Uncle Zeus. Over the roar of the storm, she could hear her Uncle yelling at her father: _Give it back! Give it back! _She had snorted at this, he sounded just like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt. The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth making Aria narrow her eyes in thought. Then a voice so deep and evil said:

"**_Come down, little heroine" _**the voice crooned. "**_Come down!"_**

The sand split beneath her, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. Aria crossed her arms as she was standing in midair. She bowed her head and stared at the darkness and saw two eyes looking at her with pure evil and madness there. She tilted her head; it was the same look Yagura had while he was being controlled.

"Who are you and why are you trying to control my dreams?"

The voice laughed and it wasn't a beautiful laugh. _**"Oh? You don't fear me?"**_

Aria snorted. "If you had one eye and ten tails then I would fear you. Now, get out of my mind."

"_**You insolent child! I'll –"**_ Before the voice could continue, they heard a roar and Kurama appeared in midair, a Bijuudama already formed in his mouth.

The Fox glared at the being that invaded his container

The being eyes widened. _**"What –"**_

"No one enter my container mind without my permission!" Aria jumped from the way and watched as Kurama threw the weak Bijuudama at the being that roared loudly in agony and pain.

The moment Aria blinked, she standing in front of Kurama's cage in her mindscape.

She crossed her arms and stared at Kurama who had an angry look in his face. He wasn't happy that someone could have entered in her mind without him noticing it till she sent a wave to chakra to him as she talked to the being that had invaded her dreams.

"What do you think?" She asked.

Kurama sat in his haunches and stared at her for a moment before speaking. "If you didn't know that your Uncle Hades wasn't missing his symbol of power what you would say?"

Aria hummed. "If I didn't know that Uncle Hades was missing his symbol of power and if I didn't love all my family members, even if most of them are asholes, then I would say that he had been the one laughing while dad and Uncle Zeus fought."

They both narrowed their eyes.

"Someone is trying to make everyone, even me, think that it was Uncle Hades that is the thief..."

"Most people must think so." Aria opened her mouth to answer when she felt herself waking up.

She sighed and opened her eyes. Getting up, she looked outside and frowned when she saw how dark it was. Thunder rolled across the hills and a storm was brewing. Aria sighed again.

It wasn't a good sign.

Hearing someone knocking on the threshold, She walked to the door and opened it to see Grover looking rather worried. Behind him, she saw Clarisse, Will and Silena.

"What's wrong guys?"

Grover opened his mouth to answer but Will spoke first. "Mr. D wants to see you."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"He wants to kill you..." Clarisse muttered making Silena hit her in the arm. "Ouch!"

The daughter of Aphrodite looked at her. "Come on, Aria. Is better not let him waiting…"

Shrugging, Aria got dressed and then followed then to the Big House. Aria saw a few members of the Apollo' cabin at the volleyball pit playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but she could see that they were tense and kept looking at the storm.

The group walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke; Hestia was sitting next to him looking worried about something as she was trying to read the book in her hands. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel chair. Dionysus and Chiron were playing against a invisible opponent - two sets of cards hovering in the air.

Aria narrowed her eyes.

The annoying girl was there! Why?

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."

"Thank you for stating the obvious Professor Snape." He raised his head and glared at her. She just grinned.

"Come closer, girl," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to bow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said but whimpered when he saw both Hestia and Aria glaring at him with glowing eyes. "Sorry…"

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth. Aria just crossed her arms, her friends standing behind her.

"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Hestia and the others Gods that seems to like you would kill me for it and Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Just so you know, cousin." Aria said. "Spontaneous combustion _is _a form of harm"

Dionysus shrugged.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Girl, you wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."

"You try" She growled. "to transform me in anything and I'll castrate you! Touch me and you die, _cousin_." No one but Dionysus, Chiron and Hestia noted how her eyes flashed red and how it was possible to hear a second voice coming from her mouth.

Dionysus cleaned his throat. "Anyway! There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players – Annabeth – cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If my cousin there is still here when I get back, I'll turn her into an Atlantic bottlenose." Aria eyes flashed red again and Dionysus flinched when he saw her show her teeths at him. She looked like an animal in the moment and he was starting to believe her that she had the power to kill him. "Do... Do you understand? And _Ariadnê_ Jackson," He really didn't like using his wife name to talk to the girl. "if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. Aria narrowed her eyes. A credit card? No. It was a security pass.

He snapped his fingers.

The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind and then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.

Aria really wanted to learn how to do that.

Chiron smiled at her, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Aria, please. And Grover."

Grover took a sit but Aria stayed where she was, raising a eyebrow at Chiron who sighed. He looked at her friends asking if they wanted to sit but they refused.

Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

"Tell me, Aria" he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

"It wasn't a cute puppy and it needed a bath."

Clarisse snorted, Will chuckled and Silena and Hestia giggled. Chiron stared at her while Grover looked as if he couldn't believe what she had just said.

"I-I see…"

Aria sighed and rubbed her temple. "I'm here because of a Quest?"

Chiron blinked. "H-How did you know?"

Aria snorted. "Dear princess." She pointed to the invisible player. "Need to learn how to keep information to herself."

Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Yes, Aria, you're correct, it is because of Quest. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

"Uncle' symbol of power." She stated.

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And someone stole it?" Will muttered as if he couldn't believe someone could be so stupid to steal it.

"Yes." Chiron said and looked at Aria who raised a eyebrow before laughing.

"You think I'm the thief."

Silena gasped. "But Chiron –"

Will shuttered. "L-Look, Chiron, I doubt Aria could have –"

"Ah, come on! She is strong but –"

Chiron raised a hand silencing Aria's friends that were all talking at the same time.

"At least" He said. "that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' etcetera." Aria facepalmed while Kurama laughed.

**Ha! I told you they had this type of ridiculous discussion all the time!**

"Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"Me." He nodded.

"Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his daughter. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

Aria laughed."Let me get this straight, yes? Dear Uncle Z is a paranoid guy with delusions of grandeur that thinks that he can just go and accuse just with assumptions and without proof and that believes that everyone in this world is against him and after his throne. Come on! What's he? A spoiled little kid?... Forget what I just asked. He_ is_ a spoiled little kid." Aria blinked when the sky flashed with lighting and bombed with thunder.

Raising an eyebrow, she turned around, looked at the sky and pointed an accusatory finger at it. Taking a deep breath she decided to use that potent voice her father was known to have.

"SHUT UP THE HELL UP UNCLE! PROVE ME WRONG, I DARE YOU!" The ground started to shake. Aria thought it was going to make a good effect. "YOU KNOW THAT IT IS THE TRUE! GROW UP ALREADY AND BE THE RESPONSIBLE KING THAT YOU SHOULD BE! STOP BEING A TYRANT!"

Satisfied, Aria nodded to herself and grinned. She frowned when she noted the how everyone was silent. Turning around, she saw Chiron and Hestia in shock, Silena and Will and Clarisse were hugging each other in fear and Grover was trembling as if there wasn't going to have a tomorrow.

"What?" They stared at her with disbelief and deadpanned expressions as if saying: Are you really asking us that?

Aria shrugged, not really caring. She just didn't see what their problem was. She was sure she wasn't the only one that said something like that to her Uncle.

"You're insane!" Clarisse said breaking the silence.

Grover nodded and raised one of his hands. "I second that!"

"A-Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Silena asked while Will just nodded frantically.

Chiron cleaned his throat making everyone look at him. "Aria, I know how you feel but Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at her, waiting for the answer. But she wasn't in the mood for this, so she just shrugged and gave a summary of it.

"Dad and others gods trapped Uncle into a golden net and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler." She snorted. "They should do it again."

Thunder boomed and she took a page of Dionysus page looked up.

"Blah, blah, blah." Everyone stared at her before sighing. They should have already started getting accustomed to her antics by now.

Chiran cleared his throat again. "Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw. Aria you're powerful and everyone know that by now. The minor gods seems to favor you for some motive and you can clone yourself. Don't you think that Zeus won't really believe that you're the thief."

Aria sighed defeated and nodded.

"So I have to get the bolt back and show Uncle that dad isn't the thief."

_I was already going to do it anyway…_

Chiron nodded. "Indeed. What better peace offering, than to have the daughter of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"

"So… Do you know where I can start looking?"

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "I heard part of a prophecy years ago... well; some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

Aria groaned.

_There's always an Oracle and a prophecy involved…_

"Why can't you just tell me where to go?"

Aria and her friends stared at Chiron as if he was crazy.

"We are talking about Aria here, right? The girl just yelled at the King of Gods for Ares' sake!" Clarisse said.

Aria nodded. "Exactly. So, will you tell me?"

He ignored them. "You agree then?"

"I already said that I'll go."

Chiron nodded. "Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Aria Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane," Aria snorted. Good way to motivate someone. "we will talk more."

Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trap pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.

The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and... Aria frowned in disgust. Was that smell of snakes? She shook her head and continued walking.

The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled _things_**—**severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was a mummy. Aria crossed her arms at this, feeling disappointed since she couldn't use her seals on it.

_I had expected a ghost not a mummy of all things!_

It was a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.

Aria frowned. Had this woman been cursed? It seemed so…

She sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from her mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes (Aria fingers twitched, she hated snakes. They made her think of Orochimaru).

Aeia jumped a little when she heard a voice in her head, and it wasn't Kurama: _I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask._

Aria crossed her arms.

"What is my destiny?"

The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four people standing in front of her. Aria blinked. It was Zabuza, the Sandaime, Kakashi and Tsunade.

She took a deep breath as she looked at them, telling herself that it was just an illusion. Just an illusion.

Zabuza turned toward her and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: _You shall go west, and face the god who has turned._

The Sandaime looked up and said in the same voice: _You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned._

Kakashi took his orange book from his pocket and said: _The traitor shall show his true face._

Finally, Tsunade said: _And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end._

The figures began to dissolve. The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years.

Aria stared at the mummy and shrugged and walked away. It hadn't been so bad. Though she was really curious about the last part. Was it about her mother or something?

"Well?" Chiron asked when she walked back to the group.

Aria slumped into a chair at the pinochle table; Hestia smiled a little and patted her head. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."

Her friends sighed while Grover smiled. "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say _exactly?" _Chiron pressed. "This is important."

Aria narrowed her eyes. The Oracle told the prophecy to _her_. Why should she tell Chiron? "She said that I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said, Hestia glared at him, making him whimper.

Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

Aria just shrugged.

"Nope."

"Don't worry honey," Hestia said making Aria look at her. She was sure that her Aunt was just there to give her a little of support with her presence, so she was surprised when the goddess spoke. "The Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

Aria nodded and smiled a little. She knew that already but she was happy that her Aunt wanted to make her feel better. She wasn't even surprised that Hestia knew that she wasn't tell everything.

"So! Who's in the west?"

"Ah, think, Aria," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

_Ah… He's going to blame Uncle Hades._

"Somebody else who wants to take over…"

_And that isn't Uncle Hades._

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

Aria hummed, thinking about her dream. Who was that being anyway? She knew it was the culprit. But she needed to find out who it was.

"If you'll try to tell me that it was Uncle Hades –" She made a 'X' with her hands. "I'll say that you're wrong."

Hestia nodded, but Aria doubted Chiron saw this.

"Aria… A Fury came after you," Chiron said. She narrowed her eyes. "She watched you until she was sure of your identity, then she tried to kill you. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"I just have something really simple to say: It wasn't him."

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron stated. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use you to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill you before you can take on the quest."

"I'll repeat: It wasn't him."

Chiron sighed exasperated.

"Look Chiron, if it makes you feel better, I'll go to the Underworld to talk to Uncle. But I'm saying that it wasn't him." She looked at her trio of friends. She would call Grover too, but he had too much problems in his shoulders already. "Do you guys want to come?"

Clarisse gave her a feral grin. "I was hoping you would ask that!"

Will and Silena looked at each other before smiling at her.

"Sure… Can't just leave you." Silena said with a small smile.

Will grinned a little. "You'll need a medic! So, sure!"

She smiled, happy that they would come. It would be like going to a mission. The only difference was that she wasn't part of a Gennin team."So where do we go exactly? The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

Aria stared at him with a blank expression. "Are you kidding right? The Underworld is in Los Angeles?" He nodded. "I don't think we can't take a plane to Los Angeles?"

"No!" Hestia, Grover and Silena yelled.

"Aria," Will said. "You are the daughter of the Sea God. Zeus will never let you go in his domain."

Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.

Aria rolled her eyes. And people called her dramatic. That's because they never meet her uncle…

"Okay, okay. We'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron said. "But just two companions should go with you. I was thinking that you would want"

Aria narrowed her eyes.

"No way in Tartarus, princess here will come –" She pointed to Annabeth that became visible and was now staring at her. "And my friends will come. The end."

Hestia talked before Chiron could say anything. "They can go honey; Chiron just thought that it would be better if it was just three people traveling."

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest –" Annabeth said rather rudely.

"I don't care. I don't want you on this, Annabeth. I don't like you. Didn't I make myself clear already?"

Annabeth looked at her as if she wanted to protest and as if she could believe that Aria couldn't want her in the guest. Aria ignored her and looked at Chiron and her Aunt.

"When will start this guest?"

Hestia smiled a little. "This afternoon, Argus can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. But, after that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

Chiron clapped. "No time to waste, I think you should all get packing."

**And the Guest Start!**

**I didn't like this chapter… But the next one will be better promise! And do you want to know why? It'll be the chapter where Leo Valdez' make his appearance! *squeal***

**A Guest asked if people from the Elemental Nations will appear. They will. But why and when you'll find out!**

**Anyway! **

**Here's what Aria wrote/will write in her Bingo Books. She has three for now, one for monsters and immortal beings, one to the gods/goddess and one for the Demigods:**

**Bingo Book: Demigods****  
**

**Entry #38**

**Name: **_Will Solace_

**Gender: **_Male_

**Family: **_Apollo (Father), Ms. Solace (Mother), Apollo's Cabin (Half-Siblings)_

**Affiliation: **_Camp Half-Blood, Olympians_

**Treat Level: **_B Rank_

**Stats:**

**Hand-to-Hand Combat: **_3.5 _**Weaponry: **_4.5 _**Intelligence: **_4 _**Speed: **_3.5_** Stamina: **_3 _**Special Ability (Vitakinesis): **_4 _**Total: **_22.5_

**Note: **_Need more experience in battle. Is excellent at archery but need to get better at hand-to-hand combat. Ally._

**Entry #50**

**Name: **_Silena Beauregard_

**Gender: **_Female_

**Family: **_Aphrodite (Mother), Mr. Beauregard (Father), Aphrodite's Cabin (Half-Siblings)_

**Affiliation: **_Camp Half-Blood, Olympians_

**Treat Level: **_B Rank_

**Stats:**

**Hand-to-Hand Combat: **_3.5 _**Weaponry: **_3.5 _**Intelligence: **_4 _**Speed: **_4_** Stamina: **_3 _**Special Ability (Amokinesis): **_4 _**Total: **_22_

**Note: **_Need more experience in battle. Need to learn more about hand-to-hand combat. Status Unknown, doesn't seems to know if she will be a traitor or no. Keep an eye on her. Convince her of not allying herself with Luke (?)._

**Entry #00**

**Name:** _Ariadnê Jackson "Aria"_

**Gender: **_Female_

**Family: **_Poseidon (Father), Sally Jackson (Mother), Triton (Half-Brother), Amphitrite (Step-Mother), Iris (Ancestral), Tyche (Ancestral), Hephaestus (Ancestral), Hecate (Ancestral)_

**Affiliation:** _Camp Half-Blood, Olympians_

**Treat Level:** _A Rank_

**Demigod Stats:**

**Hand-to-Hand Combat: **_4 _**Weaponry: **_4.5 _**Intelligence: **_4.5 _**Strength: **_4.5 _**Speed: **_4 _**Stamina: **_5 _**Special Ability (Hydrokinesis, Geokinesis, Aerokinsis, Cryokinesis, Electrokinesis, Toxikinesis): **_4.5 _**Total: **_31_

**Shinobi Stats:**

**With Suppression Seals – Taijutsu: **_2_** Ninjutsu: **_2.5_** Genjutsu: **_1_** Fuuinjutsu: **_3.5_** Kenjutsu: **_3_** Intelligence: **_3 _**Strength: **_3 _**Speed: **_2.5 _**Stamina: **_4 _**Hand-Seals: **_1.5 _**Total: **_26_

**Without Suppression Seals – Taijutsu: **_4_** Ninjutsu: **_4.5_** Genjutsu: **_2.5_** Fuuinjutsu: **_5_** Kenjutsu: **_4_** Intelligence: **_4.5 _**Strength: **_4.5 _**Speed: **_4 _**Stamina: **_5 _**Hand-Seals: **_3.5 _**Total: **_41.5_

**Anyway… Aria 'Kinesis are the same ones Percy has, just so you know…**

**Hope you liked it… Even if I didn't…**

**Please! Review, Follow, Favorite or PM me if you want!**

**- Cissnei.**

**PS: I'll just update Brave it Out when I have finally reached Eight Chapters in this story. Sorry those who are reading BiO and waiting the next chapter. I promise will make the next chapter be really long just for you guys. :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**Leo Valdez**

Aria and Dionysus bowed their heads in submission while Hestia stared (Read: Glared) at them. They were standing in front of the Goddess who was sitting comfortably in a chair in the Poseidon' Cabin with her arms crossed. To make them more uncomfortable, she was in her adult body.

After Chiron announced when Aria and her friends would be leaving for their mission (Aria called it that, everyone else insisted on calling it a Quest), Hestia followed Aria up to Poseidon' Cabin and after almost an hour scolding the girl because of the way the green-eyed treated her cousin ("Really, Aria! You can't speak with a member of your family like you did and threaten them to dead is unacceptable no matter what Dionysus had said to you. You should have shown more respect, young lady" – Aria just nodded, not even trying to comment about how Hestia seemed to have forgotten the way the daughter of the sea had spoken with Zeus. Perhaps the goddess agreed with her?) and Annabeth ("I don't care if you like or dislike Athena's daughter, I want you to start acting like a responsible young lady you are and not like a brat!").

When Hestia was finally satisfied with everything she had said to the petite girl, she found a way to call Dionysus into the cabin and then started scolding him too for Aria delight since she wasn't the only being scolded by her Aunt ("If you want respect, you should treat others with respect! You can't just threaten your younger cousin like you did, doesn't matter she said or did. She's just a child and doesn't no better" – Aria was a little offended by this, but she didn't say anything. In a way, her Aunt was right since she was acting like a child towards Annabeth… Maybe she should stop comparing her to Sakura? Is not like the girl abused her like the pinkette did).

"I'm waiting." Both god and demigod winced.

She had begun to tap her foot to the ground impatiently... That was a bad sign.

Aria took a deep breath and turned her face towards Dionysus who seemed to be praying for someone to come and do something - anything - that would take him away from his Aunt. "I... I apologize..." Hestia's eyes narrowed and Aria almost pouted. Wasn't that enough for her Aunt? "I should never have reacted that way, my..." The girl grimaced. "...my most beloved cousin..." Dionysus looked like he wanted to puke at that moment. And she understood his reaction, she felt the same way. She had already decided that Hermes was her favorite cousin. "I will never ever threaten you to death again with my eyes or whatever..." She frowned for a second as Kurama muttered something in her mind, repeating the fox words in hope that it would work. "And say... or do anything that might disgrace the honorable name of our family and, above all, my beloved father. Because _family_ is themost _precious_ thing that exists in this world..." Aria almost gave a silly grin as she said those last words. Kurama had said that was a great way of making Hestia less angry with her. And by the smile in her Aunt' face, it was working.

Hestia nodded satisfied and glared at Dionysus, waiting for him to say anything. The god didn't even see her doing that since he was glaring at Aria.

Danm that brat of his cousin! She had stolen his idea! _He_ was going to make a speech similar to the one she just gave.

Now what?

"I… _apologize_… There was no reason for me to say those things… I… I was just too stressed because of everything that had been happening."

Aria raised an eyebrow. That was the best he could say? The god almost growled at her, knowing what she was thinking. It wasn't his fault she stole his perfect speech to make Hestia less angry with him.

"I promise you… I won't do something like that again…" Hestia raised an eyebrow. "I mean, ever again." He sighed in relief as Hestia nodded her head satisfied. "I hope… with all my heart… that it will never happen again!" Dionysus placed a hand in his chest looking rather pained and dramatic. Were all the members of her family a bunch of weirdos? Kurama snorted and muttered something like _'Look who's talking…'_ making her sigh. The fox had a point.

The two cousins grimaced and hugged each other though it was difficult to say who was looking sicker than the other.

Hestia smiled. "Now, see? It wasn't so bad."

The cousins just stared at her with disbelief.

Hestia clapped her hands and smiled at Aria. "Have you packed yet sweetheart?"

Aria sweat dropped. _Is not like I had the chance to pack with you scolding me, Auntie…_

Shaking her head, Aria created two clones. She crossed her arms and watched in silence as the two walked from one side to the other picking up some scrolls - which she knew it would be essential to her mission (Quest - _whatever_) - and putting them inside her backpack.

Dionysus and Hestia looked at each other and turned their attention to the clones. There was not a single person in the camp who didn't ask Aria about how she could create those clones which allowed her to be the perfect of example of "One Man Army". But instead of giving a full explanation, she just smiled and then would say _'Bless the Nidaime' soul for the creation of the Shadow Clones'_. Nobody could understand and most gave up trying to figure out what she meant. But one thing was clear, Aria loved to make them all confused, frustrated and angry if her expression as she said that was any indication.

When one of the clones gave her the backpack, she sealed it in the pal of her hand and made a few hands seals before smiling when a flak jacket appeared over her shirt. It was the same flak jacket that all Jonin wore back in Konoha; the only difference was that her jacket was black and not green (Aprodite' Cabin refused to make it green for some motive). It had three scroll pouches on each side of the chest for scrolls, medicine, and others ninja tools. For protection, there was a neck guard and extra padding over the shoulders (which is fastened on by steel buttons). There was also a zipped middle and the symbol of Uzushiogakure was integrated onto the back of the jacket (This always made her angry when she was in Konoha. Those people walked around with the symbol of her Clan on their backs but they didn't even know about the ties Konoha had with the village before it had been destroyed).

"Finished!" Aria grinned.

"And what… Are you taking with you?" Dionysus asked.

He was really curious to know. This demigod could do things that no one else could… He blinked his eyes. Maybe she knew how to give him wine without his father knowing?

Thunder boomed.

He looked up exasperated.

"Let me see… I have five hundred dollars and ninety golden drachmas -"

Hestia interrupted her. "And where did you get _five hundred dollars _and_ ninety golden drachmas_?" Aria grinned and pointed to Dionysus who was looking rather depressed as he muttered something that sounded like _'Bets… Tyche… Lucky… Cheater… Never again…'_.

The goddess looked at her nephew and face palmed. She should have known…

"Anyway… I have shurikens, kunais, a few clothes, my first-aid kit, scrolls and ink –" They didn't even try to ask why she needed it. "A few volumes of Inuyasha so I can read it when there's nothing to do, senbons that has poison on it –"

"Where did you get poison?" Hestia asked with a blank expression. She knew that the weapons her niece had with her had been made by her relatives of the Hephaestus Cabin that were more than happy to help their distant cousin… But poison?

Aria stared not seeing what was wrong with it. She just knew the basics but they were really useful.

"The Nymphs showed me the plants I needed to make it... They were a little different from the ones I knew, but the effect is the same."

"You know how to make _poison_?" Dionysus asked. "Since when?"

Aria blinked confused. "It is basic education and since I was eight…"

**Basic education for a **_**Genin**_** maybe. A Genin in the **_**Elemental Nations**_**, but not a **_**child**_** in **_**this**_** world. You're getting too comfortable with them, kit. You are starting to forget that you have been reincarnated and that they don't know about it. **Kurama said slowly as if he had expected something like this would happen.

Aria bit her lip realizing her mistake and smiled a little uncomfortable. "S-So! I-I too packed food and a few maps."

Dionysus and Hestia narrowed their eyes and Aria whimpered. She was sure they would try and make her talk. But she just didn't know how to explain why an eight years old child needed to learn about the art of poison. Is not like she could tell them that Kurama had thought it was good idea after a civilian tried to kill her using poison (not that it worked since Kurama had healed her).

Dionysus opened his mouth to question her, but was interrupted by Will that opened the door and looked inside the cabin with a little of hesitation. "Aria, are you ready to go?"

Will froze and looked at the two gods present, flinching with pure fear when the two narrowed their eyes in his direction. The boy didn't run away like he wanted but, in that moment, he prayed that his father wouldn't let him be killed and too thought if it would be a good thing to curse Clarisse for making him coming here.

"Will, you're my savior!" Aria yelled with a big grin in her face as she pulled the son of Apollo into the Cabin and hugging him like he had just saved her life.

And for a strange reason, Will thought that the true wasn't too different from it.

"Y-You're welcome -!"

Hestia sighed. "Sweetheart, let him go… The poor boy can't breathe."

Aria blinked and looked at Will that was starting to get purple… No… He was green now.

"I-I'm sorry! Will, you can't die! You have a bright future ahead! Will! Talk to me!"

Hestia and Dionysus face palmed as they watched Aria cry and shake the son of Apollo that was looking sick because of the force she was using. Maybe they should help?

They looked at each other and shrugged.

Nah… Let him suffer a little.

**00**

After saying goodbye to Hestia and Dionysus, Will and Aria met their friends at the strange pine tree which Aria was starting to believe to have some connected to the Limbo, though she didn't have any proof to confirm her suspicions. Chiron was also there (sitting in his wheelchair for some reason) alongside Argus who smiled and waved cheerfully when he saw Aria. The girl had always found time to visit him since she got to the camp and he really liked her. She was a good friend.

Crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow, Aria stared at Argus with amusement in her face. He was looking rather important and serious with his chauffeur's uniform. Seeing her look, he bowed and smiled making the green-eyed girl clap her hands as if she was a little kid who just saw a magic show or something similar.

"Cute." She grinned when he blushed and scratched the back of his head embarrassed.

Chiron chuckled. "I think you all already know him, but this is Argus." Argus nodded. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, keep an eye on things."

Aria raised an eyebrow confused. Was he saying that because of the amount of eyes Argus had? Was this some type of joke? She didn't think it was funny…

**Kit, the blonde boy is coming.** Aria was ready to ask the fox about who he was talking about when she heard footsteps behind her.

Turning around, the black haired girl saw Luke running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes which Aria was sure wasn't normal. Blinking her eyes and focusing a little of chakra to enhance her senses, Aria frowned when she noted that Son of Hermes wasn't alone. If he knew or not that Annabeth was there, she wasn't sure.

Though, she couldn't feel surprised at this. Aria had been sure the girl was going to follow them on way or another. After she had made sure that she didn't want Annabeth in the mission (Quest – _whatever_!) the blonde had a look in her eyes that Aria had seen before in Shikamaru Nara' face. The boy had been the best strategist she had ever encountered and he had that same look when he was playing _Go_ or _Shogi_.

Aria hummed and shook her head when Will placed a hand in her shoulder and pointed to the footprints he was seeing in the ground.

Even if the princess wanted to go, Aria wasn't going to let her. Four demigods in this mission was enough. If the blonde followed them, she would end being more a liability then help. Though Aria did want Annabeth to learn when she could break the rules and when she should just stay behind and do as she was told.

But she won't let her come. Not when there was the risk of her dying.

_Annoying or not… Distant related or not… She's family._ Aria thought as she shook her head. _I will never let my family die if I can stop it._

Kurama grumbled displeased. He had wanted Aria to let the girl follow her. It would be a good way to get rid of the brat.

"Hey," Luke panted. "Glad I caught you." He smiled as he looked at Aria who was just staring at him, waiting for him to say what he wanted. "Just wanted to say good luck and I thought… um, maybe you could use these." He handed Aria the sneakers, which she was sure that there was something wrong with them.

How she could explain it? Aria felt like there was a type of… Compulsion? Yes, there was a compulsion on it.

"_Maia_!" Luke said.

Aria blinked her eyes surprised and dropped the sneakers when white bird's wings sprouted out of the heels. The black haired girl stared at the shoes as they flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

She gave a hum as Clarisse took the shoes and stared at them with a curious expression.

Really, she should have expected something like this. Wasn't her Cousin Hermes the one with the flying sandals?

"Cool…!" Will muttered impressed with a glint in his eyes that showed his desire to be the first one to use those shoes.

Not that Aria would let him. Not till she found out what was the purpose of that compulsion.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days…" Aria raised an eyebrow when his expression turned sad.

Her friends looked at her as if expecting her to say something. She sighed. "Thank you Luke…" They nodded satisfied making her roll her eyes. Were they taking lessons from her Aunt?

"Listen, Aria…" Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just... kill some monsters for me, okay?"

Kurama snorted.** The boy is a good actor. What do think?**

Aria tilted her head a little. _Since he gave me those shoes… There's now 90% of him being a traitor or spy. More like a traitor that is a spy too._

"Ok." Aria said as she shook Luke hand.

As he did the same with her friends, Aria turned her attention to Annabeth narrowing her eyes before looking at Argus that placed an arm around her shoulders with a grin in his face. The black haired girl laughed as he jingled his car keys as they walked in direction of a white SUV that was waiting for them on the shoulder of the road.

"Hey, Ari! Can I stay with them?" Will asked like a little kid on sugar rush as he walked next to her, showing the shoes. "Since you're Poseidon' daughter, I doubt you could use it."

Aria frowned. "I… Well…" She made a pause, thinking of how she could stop him from use it. After a few seconds she found a solution and sighed. "Is better if no one use it. I'm sure Luke meant well –" Kurama muttered a _'To who?'_ "- but it will call too much attention."

Will sighed disappointed as Silena pated his shoulder with a small smile in her face. "Is alright Will, you can always use it when we get back to the camp."

Wanting to see the shoes, Clarisse pushed Will, laughing when the blonde lost his balance and fell on top of Silena that seemed a little confused. As if she didn't know if she wanted to be embarrassed with what was going on or if she wanted to be angry with her friend. The daughter of Ares laughed at them and took the shoes, looking at them with a glint in her eyes that showed she was going to use them, it didn't matter what Aria said.

Chiron shook his head at the three demi-gods that started to yell at each other. He turned his attention to Aria and gave her a small smile. "I should have trained you better, Aria," Aria frowned.

What he was talking about? She had been trained already and what Chiron had done till now had been enough for her to reach to an acceptable level. She still needed to train more, but Aria was proud to say that she had already reached a good high C-Rank to low B-Rank and she would reach her old High A-Rank in no time. Maybe she could even get to S-Rank?

"If only I had more time…" He shook his head. "Hercules, Jason –they all got more training."

Aria smiled. "Is all right; Chiron. We will be fine."

He nodded and blinked his eyes. "What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to Aria. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. As Chiron handed it to Aria, she looked at the pen with a thoughtful expression in her face.

That pen was familiar…

**Hey, kit! Isn't the same pen that you used in the museum? The one that could transform into a sword? **Aria nodded. Looking at the pen, she was sure that it was the one that she had used to vaporize the old hag of Mrs. Dodds.

"Aria," She turned her attention to Chiron. "that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one." Chiron stated.

Aria grinned and squealed at the thought of her father giving her a present. Jumping like a little child, she took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in her hand. In a few seconds, it had turned into a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs.

She tilted her head, humming. Aria hadn't noted it before – maybe because she was itching to use Yagura' staff again at the time – but the sword felt right in her hand.

Now she just needed to find a good fighting style that would fit it.

"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told her. "Its name is _Anaklusmos_."

"Riptide." Aria translated as she played with the sword.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."

**So it **_**is**_** useless.** Aria ignored the fox who snorted.

"Why wouldn't it harm mortals? It _is_ a sword right?" Aria asked not wanting to think of how Kurama had just insulted something her father had given to her.

"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are _twice_ as vulnerable."

Kurama growled at this. **Kit, get rid of this sword before I do it myself. I'll not let it be the reason that you got ****hurt or worse.**

Aria placed the sword close to her body and shook her head. _No way! My father gave it to me!_

Kurama started to scream at her and, to make him shut up – and to annoy him –, she started to sing _'__Embrace The Très Bien Moi'_**. **She grinned when it worked since she really didn't want to try and block his connectionher. She couldn't hold Kurama for too long and if she did block his connection with her,he would break the small barrier she created between her and him and he would demand the destruction of the sword.

Now that he was silent, she could a plan a way to convince him to let her stay with the sword. She really hopped, whatever the plan was, that it would work because the last thing Aria wanted was the destruction of a present her father gave to her.

"Aria? Do you understand what I just told you?" She took a deep breath and nodded. "Now, recap the pen." She touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. As she sealed it,Chiron told her how she couldn't lose the blade ("The pen will come back to you" He told her after she refused to throw the pen as far as she could so he could show her that it would reappear in her pocket or whatever was the place she had placed the pen).

Aria thanked the centaur and looked at the place she knew Annabeth was standing. She opened her mouth to speak but paled when she felt a pulse of power – the same way she always felt when Kurama was controlling her body – and then, before she could react, a scream of terror was heard. In the next moment, it was possible to see Annabeth rolling in the ground and holding her head.

"Caterpillars! Hugs! Sunset! It doesn't go away!"

Chiron placed himself next to her and touched Annabeth that wouldn't stop talking about sunsets and caterpillars.

_Kurama, what did you do?_

**What? I was angry and needed to relieve it! Didn't you hear the girl, kit? It was the Sunset!** And he started to laugh making Aria sweatdrop at how crazy he sounded.

The green-eyed girl shivered and hugged herself at the thought of the Sunset came to her. She turned around to join the others in the car, not wanting to stay next to Annabeth if it meant she had to be reminded of the Sunset and it effect on people (The illusion was like the perfect torture created). Aria ignored how she hadn't even noted how her friends had left her behind so she could talk to Chiron, she just continued to walk, praying to any god or goddess that would hear her so that Annabeth wouldn't end in a hospital for crazy people (What was the name of those places anyway?), the girl was family and Aria would feel guilty if the girl ended there because of something Kurama had done to her.

Before Aria took her place in the seat next to Argus, she looked back for a moment to see that Chiron was still next to Annabeth and now, Dionysus too was there looking rather horrified because of something.

Aria shook her head as she shivered again knowing that the God must have seen what had made Annabeth scream like… Well, as if someone had just told her that she couldn't read or study anymore.

Anyway, Aria didn't wish _the Sunset_ even for her worst enemy.

_I pity her… Annabeth will never see a Sunset the same way…_

**00**

Argus drove them out of the countryside and into the western Long Island. Aria was reading her manga, Clarisse and Will were humming to themselves (Aria didn't recognize most of the songs, but she knew that one of them was an AC/DC' song if she wasn't wrong) and Silena was looking at the window as if searching for something interesting.

**How long do you think this peaceful travel is going to last? **Aria pursed her lips at this.

Not very long if her luck had anything to do with it.

After all, most missions – important missions that's it – that start peaceful, always end having some type of powerful enemy. Of course Aria was aware that this time the enemy, for now anyway, was her Uncle Hades (and maybe her Uncle Zeus – she had the feeling that he would try something) and that he would more likely sent his minions after her and the others.

Sighing, Aria looked up, giving a small pray to her Cousin Hermes so the travel wouldn't end in a disaster.

She snorted. Who she was trying to fool? Of course it would end with disaster. If not, a disaster would happen.

**Hey, kit!** Kurama said in a too sweet voice to her liking. The daughter of Poseidon frowned. **About the sword ~** **Maybe you should just give it to me, I can destroy it for you.** She flinched at how his voice changed then. It made her remember that Kurama was a demon, and even if he didn't want to hurt her (Kurama was always looking after her wellbeing after all), his words seemed to stab her heart without compassion. **After all, it could be just a way for your **_**precious daddy**_** to get you killed.**

Forgetting that she wasn't alone in the car, Aria bowed her head depressed, clenching her fits as she did so. _Y-You can't destroy the sword! And it is not true! Dad would never want me dead._

**Oh yes, because fathers figures had been so good to you, kit. **She flinched.

She took a deep breath. _A-Anyway! What rank would you classify this mission?_

Kurama hummed clearly displeased with the change of subject.

**A-Rank.** She grinned and shook her head. It couldn't be so difficult. **Oh, yeah. You said the same thing about your first A-Rank mission.**

Aria pouted at the reminder.

After a long list of D-Rank Missions (which she broke the record – 205 Missions – by using her Shadow Clones) and various C-Rank Missions, Aria had gotten bored and when she heard about how Shisui was going to a dangerous mission outside of the village, she had asked to go with him. When the Uchiha refused (through the civilian council was more the willing if it meant that she could get herself killed), Aria followed him with Kurama hiding her presence from him. After, it was a simple A-Rank mission and in her mind, nothing could go wrong.

When the Uchiha found about her, it was too late. He couldn't send her back to the village and he really needed to finish his mission. She was almost killed at the mission and it had been the first time she had used Kurama chakra, but they finished it protected the son of the Damiyo as they were meant to.

No one – from the council anyway - found out about her going to the mission, Shisui had made sure of it and even Itachi had helped. But after that, the Sandaime made sure that her ANBU guard would never lose her again. After all, they couldn't let the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, the Uzumaki heir and daughter of the Yondaime' die so young, before she had even made the village stronger or before she gave them an heir.

_W-Whatever!_ Aria sniffed.

Beside her, Argus was sure that he could see a dark cloud above her head. Was… Was it his imagination or there was rain coming from the cloud?

Dramatic much…

The fox sweatdropped. **Kit, one Shodai is enough. Stop acting like the tree hugger idiot. **

_You're so mean –_

Kurama puffed his chest proudly. **Thank you. I try.**

_The Shodai was awesome. _She said, as if Kurama hadn't interrupted her.

**No. He wasn't. He was one hell of an annoying idiot.**

Taking her attention out of Kurama, Aria sealed her manga and looked at the window.

The traffic slowed them down in Queens and by the time they got into Manhattan it was sunset and was starting to rain. Argus dropped them at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not too far from the apartment where Aria and her mother lived.

Aria frowned as she thought about her mother. Since she knew Sally had just been kidnapped, she could seize the opportunity that she was going to her Uncle's Realm to look for her... Or she could just ask your uncle freed Sally?

Aria sighed and rubbed her temple.

_How do you bargain with someone who is not only the God of Death but also the God of Wealth? Is that even possible?_

Shaking her head, Aria looked around to see that Argus had already unloaded her friends' bags – they had refused to let her seal them away for an unknown reason –. He then got the bus tickets and handed them to Silena before ruffling Aria hair and driving away. Aria noted, as she waved her hands in good-bye, that he had the eye on the back of his neck open, staring at her and the group as he drove away, as if he wanted to make sure that they were fine.

Clarisse shouldered her backpack and placed one of her hands in her wrist. "So… What we are going to do?"

Aria shrugged as Will seated into a familiar position. Aria stared at him for a moment with narrowed eyes till she rolled her eyes. He was making a perfect imitation of 'The Thinker'. Wasn't the sculptor – Auguste Rodin – his older brother? Or was he a legacy of Apollo? She couldn't remember.

Silena clapped her hands together making the trio look at her.

"What about a game?"

Clarisse grimaced. "No thank you." She pointed to Aria. "She never loses."

"It is not true! I lost one time." Her friends gave her a deadpan look. "Ok… I decided to quit that game because I was hungry and wanted ramen… But still!"

"Maybe we could do twenty questions or something?" Silena nodded and raised her one of her hands gracefully.

"I'll start!" She turned to Aria. "Who was your first crush?"

Aria blinked her eyes at the question, but since Silena was a daughter of Aphrodite, the sea princess couldn't feel surprised by what she heard. Aria tilted her head in thought.

_Hey Kurama –_

**No!**

She pouted. _You don't even know what I was going to ask._

**Yes I do. You don't know who was your first crush and you want me to tell you.**

_Oh? So you know who it was! Who?_

Kurama growled and muttered a few cursed, some of them Aria had never heard in her life (both of them), and then he started to threatened someone to dead before he answered, Aria repeating what he said when he finished speaking. Of course, she didn't insult call the boy a… Well… The words the fox used weren't the nicest descriptions you could find.

She didn't know Kurama could be so creative!

"Genma Shiranui."

"Strange name." Clarisse muttered while Silena clapped her hands like a little kid in Christmas. She was ready to make more questions since she wanted to know more about this Genma, but Will interrupted her.

"My turn." The daughter of Aphrodite glared at him though he ignored her in favor of looking at Clarisse.

"Is true that you always sleep with a blue teddy bear called Jay-Jay?"

Clarisse blushed and clenched her fists as she glared at Will who grinned. "Yes." She growled. "How do you know that anyway?!"

Will smirked. "The Stolls and I have a _long_ list of blackmail on everyone. I just wanted to hear you admit it." He made a pause. "Well, not everyone. We just can't find anything on Aria."

Aria tilted her head while Clarisse and Silena sweatdropped.

"Aha! So I was right! You three have been stalking me!" Aria exclaimed before seeing the looks they were sending her. "I always know when someone is following me. Anyway, I sent various clones to distract my stalkers but they were good, I could never see who it was. Though I was starting to get suspicious that it was Will and the Stolls because they were always planning something and looking at me."

Will puff his chest; feeling rather proud that Aria couldn't find them. "I manipulated the light so you couldn't see us. Is an ability I got from dad. It is called Photokinesis."

"I thought you could just use Vitakinesis." Silena muttered while Aria and Clarisse nodded.

"Nope!" He grinned. "I'm the first of my dad's children in nearly a century that was born with it."

"So… What you can do with it?" Clarisse asked.

This ability had to be good so Aria couldn't find Will and the Stolls. The girl was like a hawk. Her eyes could find almost anything.

"I can create light shields, project healing energies – which, by the way, is different from Vitakinesis –, I can make blasts of light to impale or blind my enemies for some time, I can concentrate light particles into lasers I can become invisible, and I can create illusions or hallucinations… I think is just that."

Aria groaned and facepalmed making her friends turn their attention to her. "I suck at illusions and your trick of becoming invisible is a type of illusion!"

It was true, she was already bad with illusions created by chakra (but those she knew how to dissipate it), the ones made by the mist she could deal with Kurama's help, but those illusions that were more or less tricks of light? She could do nothing about it!

Silena smiled and patted Aria' shoulder. "Is good to know you're not invincible Aria."

Sea-green eyes blinked as the black haired girl looked at them. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

Clarisse snorted. "Ninja Girl, everyone in the camp was starting to believe that you were some kind of super hero that didn't have weakness. What Silena means is that good to know that you are normal."

Aria rolled her eyes.

She was full of weakness and faults. Is just that most of the things she had done in the camp weren't too challenging and more than half of the demigods there were too weak to fight against her.

She was powerful yes, but most of the powers she had come from Kurama.

This time, the fox was the one who snorted. **Keep saying that, maybe both of us will start to believe it.**

The four friends continued to talk and ask their questions till the bus arrived. But as they were standing in line to board, Aria grimaced. She sniffed the air and looked around with narrowed eyes. Silena, who was standing next to her saw the action and, knowing about the green-eyed girl heightened senses, placed a hands in the placed she had hidden her knifes.

With one of her hands, Silena made a signal (A sign language Aria had taught to them – something called ANBU Code) to Will and Clarisse leaving the message clear: Keep alert, there's something wrong here.

Aria rubbed her temple, feeling a headache coming.

Maybe she shouldn't have thought about how things could go wrong. Now look at it! The trip was going to go wrong.

With a sigh, Aria boarded the bus along her friends who she could see were getting more and more worried. Will fingers were twitching as if he was ready to take the new toy his father gave him for this guest and use it (Aria was really curious to know what it was), Silena looked like a madwoman as she kept looking everywhere and Clarisse looked like she just wanted to kill something and have a good fight if the bloodthirsty smirk in her face was any indication.

As the last passengers got on, Clarisse was almost jumping and Silena was holding her arm with trembling hands. "Aria…"

Aria turned her head and narrowed her eyes. An old lady boarded the bus and it didn't take long for Aria to see that she wasn't just an old lady.

**Kit –**

_I noticed._

That old lay – who was wearing a crumpled velvet dress, lace groves, and shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face – was her old teacher Mrs. Dodds.

And the hag some back! Aria lips twitched. Her uncle needed to find some employers more fashionable and less old and ugly…

**He is the God of Death.**

_And the God of Wealthy. Why everyone always forget it?_

Kurama rolled his eyes, but she had a point there. The hag and the hellhounds didn't give the God the best of the images.

Behind Mrs. Dodds, came two more old ladies; one wearing a purple hat and the other wearing a green hat. Aria really wanted to snort, but a glare from Silena stopped her.

Will started to play with his necklace, the present his father gave him, which had a silver bow on it. He narrowed his eyes as the old hag and her sisters – or so Aria thought – sat in the front row, right behind the driver. He looked around and Aria recognized the act as the son of Apollo trying to find an exit or something that he could use against the triplet hags from hell.

Maybe he could find something to use against them but an exist on other hand… Aria shook her head.

Two of the hags, the ones on the aisle, crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X and the message wasn't too difficult to understand: Nobody leaves.

"So… Er… Any plan?" Silena asked, getting a little nervous with the prospect of dealing with one of the hags.

"We'll smash them!" Clarisse grinned.

Aria smirked. "Wow, I didn't know you were related to Hulk, Clarisse." The daughter of Ares blushed and glared at Aria who ignored her.

"How do you kill one of the Furies?" Will asked, not really expecting to get an answer. But Aria gave one anyway as she played with her pen, which they hadn't seen her get it.

"We could always burn them, maybe I could cut one of them in half while you guys deal with the others…" She looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Sunshine, I can give you a long list of how we can kill them."

Will gave her a glare at the nickname. "I was being rhetorical, _Pixie_." Aria narrowed her eyes.

She knew she was small for her age and that most people liked to compare her to porcelain doll, but it didn't mean she liked to her anyone making a comment about the height.

"Guys! Now is not the time for this!" Silena said exasperated. "Please."

Clarisse looked up as if asking for patience as Will and Aria crossed their arms like little kids and refused to look to one another. She shook her head and blinked her eyes seeing a boy sitting not too far from where they were. And the interesting part, he was looking at the hags with narrowed eyes as if he knew that they weren't human.

Looking at his hands, she noted that he had them inside his backpack, and if she really tried to, she could see something big there.

A weapon?

"Guys? I think I just found a Demigod." She hoped he was one, it would be embarrassing if she was wrong.

"Who?" Silena asked, not seeing anyone familiar there so it meant it was someone that didn't go to the camp yet.

Clarisse pointed to the boy. "The elf lookalike."

Aria looked at the boy who was almost jumping from his seat. He truly looked like an elf. He had curly black hair; dark brown eyes, pointy ears, a cheerful babyish face – which was rather serious at the moment – and he had a look in his eyes that made him look like he had taken too much caffeine then the normal limit.

Creating a small ball of water and then transforming it into ice, Aria threw in the boy head. Startled, the elf boy jumped and looked around, ready to defend himself if needed.

"Aria, what the hell are you doing?" Clarisse asked.

"He'll come with us." Aria said.

The boy was powerful; she could feel his dormant powerful from where she was sitting. It won't be a good idea to let him walking around alone, even if seemed like he was used to fighting monsters.

When the boy turned his attention to them, narrowing his eyes with distrust, Aria waved to him. Telling him to come and sit next to her. He stared at her and neither of them blinked for a long time till he nodded to himself satisfied. Though, he didn't move from where he was, shaking his head as he turned his attention to the three hags and then looked at her.

Pursing her lips, Aria sighed and nodded. He had the right idea there.

It would be better to not call their attention.

**00**

The rest of the ride was made in silence with Will or Aria making a few jokes to try – a failing – to ease the mood. And as they entered the Lincoln Tunnel, Aria body tensed and the others started to get alert. The elf boy too didn't look too different and, if she wasn't hallucinating (which she doubted it was the case), he had a small ball of fire in his hands.

_How ironic. I'm water, he's fire._ She shook her head. _What do they say? Opposites attract._

Kurama snarled in disgust. **Kit, stop with this nonsense and pay attention to the hags.**

She frowned at the amount of animosity, but did so.

"I hate the dark …" Will muttered; flinching as the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle.

Mrs. Dodds got up and in a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus. "I need to use the rest-room."

"Please don't." Silena said in a low voice, almost a whisper.

"So do I," said the old hag number two.

"So do I," said the old hag number three.

They all started coming down the aisle.

"Will, can you make your tricks with the light?" Aria asked her the blonde who shook his head.

"No, is too dark."

Aria lips turned into a tin line as she tried to make a plan. But it wasn't easy! She was better making traps and disarming them (She got it from Hephaestus or so his children said), she wasn't a strategist!

In front of their eyes, the hags started to change. Their faces were still the same, which couldn't get any uglier (though, by the expression on Silena's face, she thought it could), but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws and their handbags had turned into fiery whips.

_I want one of those whips! It would be a cool spoil of war…_

**Not the time, kit!**

The three hags lashed their whips as continued to walk. With her peripheral vision, Aria could see the elf boy getting out of his seat, looking around and then grinning to himself as if he had just made a plan.

Good thing, since Aria couldn't think of nothing that wouldn't end with the death of almost everyone in the bus. And she said _almost_, because Kurama wouldn't let _her_ die. He didn't care about the rest.

**Happy that you know.**

Even if she didn't know what this plan was about, Aria decided to help a little. And what better way to help than distracting the hags?

"Hey, Hag number one." The hag number three tilted her head. "Not you, the other one." She pointed to the Fury in question; ignoring the way the hag narrowed her eyes. "Can we help you?"

Silena facepalmed, Will groaned and Clarisse bowed her head praying to her father for patience because the girl was giving her a big headache. The elf boy, on other hand, stopped what he was doing to look at Aria with wide eyes which were shining with amusement.

"Where is it? Where?" Hag number one hissed making Aria thank the mist. It wouldn't do if the passengers started to panic.

To her exasperation, the other passengers on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats.

Ok, so the mist wasn't working as it should because they could see that _something_ was happening.

"Not with me." Aria grinned when the three hags hissed. "Can't we just sit down, and talk about it?" She dodged a whip. "Ok, maybe not…"

"You _think_…?" Clarisse deadpanned.

The hags threw themselves at them. Will was the first to react to everyone surprise; he touched his necklace and, at the same time, opened one of the many pockets of his pants. Aria watched with fascination as the necklace transformed into a silver pyramid bow. From his pocket he took some type o blade that was placed into the bow as if it was an arrow and, in a flash of light, the blade increased it size and was transformed into an arrow.

Will let the arrow go, which not just parted in three but sent the Furies flying. The elf boy dodged one of the hags and, ignoring the driver, he took possession of the wheel of the bus. As result of his actions, the bus ended slamming against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, and throwing sparks a mile behind them.

The bus careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters were tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins. The bus shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads.

Aria grinned. It was like one of those tourists journey!

**Kit!**

_Ok, ok, not the time. I heard you the first time._ The fox groaned.

**I don't think you did.**

Aria looked at her left where she could see the woods and by her right and she could even see the Hudson River.

Will shoot again, but the Furies dodged (Was it her impression, or the hags were stronger than Mrs. Dodds in the museum?). Seeing this, the elf boy cursed before hitting the emergency brake, ignoring the screams of the driver that seemed like he would have a heart attack at any second.

The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. The boy gave a relieved sigh and looked to see one the Furies with her back to him and facing Aria who glaring at the hag. Looking behind Aria, he saw that Clarisse was in the middle of the hallway with one of the last Furies, while Silena and Will surrounded the last one in the end of the bus.

**00**

As the Fury attacked with her whip, Clarisse cursed and took a three-section staff from her overcoat, dodging the hag.

The three-section staff had been Aria idea and the girl had taught the daughter of Ares how to use it. It was a weapon easy to hide and it techniques were similar to that of the staff, so spinning moves over the head and behind the back, such as helicopter spins and neck rolls (which Clarisse seemed to be fond of), could be practiced. Other techniques that could be used with the three section staff were the ones Clarisse was making use of at the moment, using it as a simple short chain (so she could stop the hag from hitting her with her whip), a whip (Much like her spear, the staff was surrounded by electricity and by the way the hag she was fighting was flinching, it hurt) and as a two section staff. All in all, Clarisse was using her weapon as an extension of her arms, was striking, flailing, blocking, and anything else she could do with it.

Hitting the Fury the face and making her lose her balance, Clarisse jumped while using the shoulders of the hag as a means of getting behind the Fury. With another fast movement, she placed her staff around the hag's neck and grinned as the electricity around her weapon increased.

The Fury gave a pained and ugly scream as Clarisse held the two ends of the staff with one hand and then took a knife from inside her boots, stabbing the hag and watching with satisfaction as it disappeared in front of her.

She gave a cocky smirk. "Too easy."

**00**

Narrowing her eyes, Silena dodged the whip of the Fury who seemed to scream in frustration. Behind the Fury, she saw Will preparing his arrow. This had been their silent plan. She would distract and injury the Fury with her knifes and then, when it last expected, Will would kill it. Though, now she wished that they had made other type of plan.

She cursed and jumped, her lips twitching as she kicked the Fury in the chest. As the Fury lost it balance, Silena saw the Fury's eyes widening as she took a few knifes and threw them in the monster legs, cutting it off. Placing herself in a tense form, watching as the Fury fell to the ground, Silena narrowed her eyes ready to act if the monster tried something.

She proved right when the Fury raised her whip, but before either of them could do something, Will placed himself next the Fury, an arrow pointed to it face.

"Did you forget about me?" He asked with a smile, letting go of the arrow that pierced the Fury chest who ended stuck where it was and couldn't move anymore.

Knowing that Will's powers had weakened – and his arrows wouldn't kill (hurt yes, but not kill) any monster till he had got his strength back, Silena threw four knifes making the Fury scream in agony. She sighed when the monster disappeared and looked at Will with narrowed eyes.

She had literally fought the Fury alone. And Will? He did almost _nothing_!

"You planed this." He smiled a little uncomfortable, raising his hands when she pointed one of her knifes at him. "You lazy bas –" She was interrupted by a loud hiss was heard.

Looking at where Aria, Silena could hear the disgust in voice of the black haired girl who was, apparently, grimacing as she talked. "Can you stop doing _that_!" The daughter of Poseidon exclaimed as the Fury hissed. "Is _creep_! The only one I know that do it is a freak pedophile that look like an albino snake with black hair!"

The elf boy grimaced as if he couldn't imagine something like that. "Where the hell did you meet someone like that?"

Aria shook her head. "You don't want to know." She pinched her nose. "I had thirty two baths after he touched me."

Not liking that they were being ignored, or maybe they just didn't like being compared to a pedophile, the Fury hissed again, baring it yellow fangs at the daughter of Poseidon who just called the monster _'Ugly' _in Japanese (Silena was really happy that she had read that dictionary so she could understand the things Aria said sometimes). The Fury, ignoring the elf boy, walked in Aria direction like an animal stalking it prey.

The Elf boy, at first, looked insulted. He didn't seem to like the fact that he was being ignored, but he didn't do anything. Though, he seemed fascinated as the Fury flicked her whip, in which red flames danced along the barbed leather.

"Ariadnê Jackson, -" The Fury was interrupted.

"I know my name's beautiful, you don't need to keep saying that. Really, just don't say my name."

Silena really wanted to hit her behind her head for the comment. Did Aria need to keep making the Furies angrier?

The elf boy, on other hand, laughed as he stared at Aria with a glint in his eyes. Being her mother daughter, Silena translated the glint and smile as: Where this girl had been all my life?

Despite the situation, Silena couldn't help but chuckle. _Well! How interesting!_

**00**

Aria resisted the urge to scream like a petulant child or to just run disgusted as the Fury hissed again. That action made her think of Orochimaru who had taken the Sandaime from her and to think of the Voldemort-wannabe made her shiver involuntarily. The man had hunted her dreams for a long time.

She frowned. _And he's the reason Sasuke left the village._

The Fury continued to talk as id Aria hadn't even opened her mouth. "You have offended the gods. You shall die." Aria raised an eyebrow.

_Offended? Who I offended? _

**The list is **_**long**_**. Though, I don't think you offended a god… **She smiled. _**Yet**_**… **The smile disappeared.

Aria sighed in defeat and tilted her head. _Hey, I just noticed it, but this hag has an accent. Georgia I think…_

**Kit, pay attention to the hags not their accent.**

Aria cleaned her throat. "No, thank you. I like my life. I can't die before meeting my dad, my older brother and… Well meeting all my relatives, the family is too big." She grinned happily at this and frowned. "And I want to get married… Yep, definitely getting married…"

_Though, I have the slight impression that Kurama won't let me._

The fox nodded, looking as if that was the answer for all the unanswered questions about the universe. **Not even in a million years. **She sighed sadly.

The Fury hissed and Aria shook her head. "I asked you to stop doing that… How rude…" Aria lips turned into a thin line. "Hum… By the accent I think you're Mrs. Dodds… Yeah, you're Mrs. Dodds alright… You know, I liked you more when you were a math teacher." Aria said, pointing to the hag.

She saw the elf boy lips twitch. "Oh? A math teacher, really?" He hummed. "I see resemblance to one… Evil ones they are." He nodded his head sagely.

Aria grinned and uncapped her pen, throwing it up before holding the sword and pointing it to the hag who hesitated. Aria raised an eyebrow and hummed as she saw the effect the present her father gave her had in the hag.

Kurama sighed in her head and from the emotions he was projecting to her, the fox was feeling rather bored. **I don't know why you don't use a jutsu… **

She _could_ have used a jutsu to, if she wasn't wrong (and she doubted she was), kill the hag more easily. But Aria there was the possibility that, if she used one of her jutsus, the bus would be destroyed and would kill all of them in the process.

**Maybe you would kill your little friends. But you would survive.** Kurama made a pause and gave a bloodthirsty grin that Aria decided to ignore. **Why don't you try?**

"Submit now," The hag hissed (Aria shivered and grimaced in disgust again. She really – _really_ – hated it!). "And you will not suffer eternal torment."

"Hum… Sorry, no can do." Aria deadpanned.

Aria looked at the windows of the bus by the corner of her eyes frowned. _Well, we're losing time here…_

She sighed.

With a hiss, the hag moved and before any of Aria friends or the elf boy could react, it was in front of Aria who raised an eyebrow. The hag hand was already next the demigod neck, ready to choke the girl or something. But when the Fury fist closed, it grabbed into nothing. With wide eyes, the monster tried to react and t away from there, knowing that the girl would more likely kill it because of it careless. The Fury knew that the daughter of Poseidon was more powerful than the others demigods there, it had decided it by after the green-eyed girl had 'killed' it for the first time.

The Fury hissed in pain when a knee was ploughed into it stomach and it was throw up because of the force used in the move. The demigods present winced when they saw the foot print Aria had left in the ground when she jumped, reappearing just behind the Fury with her sword very.

Aria tilted her head and her eyes flashed for a moment before she stabbed the hag – who she was sure to be Mrs. Dodds – and it disappeared in front of her eyes.

**Well, maybe this sword has it use.**

Aria chuckled as she landed in the ground. It was good to know that Kurama forgot about the weakness part...

**Ah, yes, I forgot about it. **She sweatdropped. Maybe it would be better if Aria just stayed quiet.

"So…" She looked at the elf boy. "What's your name?"

The boy opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted when thunder shook the bus. Aria sniffed the air and her eyes widened as she turned around to see Clarisse and Silena walking to the place they had left their bags.

"Forget it!" They looked at her surprised. "We need to get out of here."

The two girls stayed where they were till Will grabbed their wrists, rushing after Aria and the elf boy as they run out of the bus to find the other passengers wandering around in a daze, , arguing with the driver, or just running around in circles yelling.

_**BOOOOM!**_

The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof making Aria groan.

Was her Uncle crazy? If he killed them, who would find his precious stick of mass destruction?

Her friends stared at the bus in silence before Silena spoke.

"There goes my bag…" Will and Clarisse nodded.

"I told you guys to let me seal it away." Aria said, ignoring their looks and then looked at the elf boy who was standing next to her. "Aria Jackson..."

The boy grinned. "Leo Valdez."

Aria nodded with a small smile and turned her attention to the sky, narrowing her eyes in angry and annoyance. _Think before acting Uncle. Try something like that again and I will stop looking for your precious stick. _

Thunder boomed, if it was because her Uncle didn't like how she didn't stop calling his Master Bolt a stick or if it was because she had just threatened him, Aria didn't know. Nor did she care.

**And you still ask who you offended…**

_Shut up Kurama!_

**Leo Valdez**

**So…! Hope you liked it! Next chapter we will see Nico and Bianca Di Angelo, though this encounter won't end too well for the children of Hades.**

**Hope you like it! And please, leave your Review or Favorite, Follow or just send a PM!**

**- Cissnei.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Good Enough**

**Summary: **_How the story of Percy Jackson would change if he was a girl and the reincarnation of a kunoichi who was killed by her best friend and brother? What if she still had all her memories, abilities and the demon fox stuck in her gut? FemNaru._

**Just a warning: **_FemNaru, FemNaru-is-Percy, Reincarnation_

**I don't own Percy Jackson or Naruto, Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto does!**

**Book 1: Aria Jackson and the Lightning Thief**

**Working Together**

Kurama growls and Aria's eyebrow twitches as a sigh was heard. Clarisse looked ready to strangle someone, Silena had a knife in her hand and Will looked like he wanted to scream in frustration and kill something.

"Are we there yet?"

"No Leo…"

"Are we there yet?"

"No Leo."

"Are we there yet?"

"No Leo!"

There was moment of silence.

"What about now?"

"YES!" Silena yelled making the others look at her as if she had grown another head. "FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS! YES VALDEZ! NOW SHUT UP BEFORE I RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT!"

The effect was instantaneous; Leo closed his mouth and hid behind Aria who whistled impressed. She never thought she'd live to see the day that Silena would lose her patience and composure. From what she had seen, Silena was one of the most calms demigods in the camp.

Her friends blinked their eyes at Silena who looked like a wild animal before she took a deep breath. Leo gulped when she narrowed her eyes but sweatdropped along the others when the daughter of Aphrodite gave him a sweet smile as if nothing had happened. "Good boy."

Leo frowned displeased with the way she was talking to him and opened his mouth to complain but stopped, sniffing the air.

"Please, _please_, tell me you guys can smell it too… It can't be just hallucination." Leo muttered with hungry.

Aria sniffed the air. "If you're talking about the smell of fast food –" Silena grimaced as Aria said this. "Then yes. Yes I do."

As they walked a little more, the group came upon a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the smell of food that seemed to make Silena sick.

"Thank the gods! A rest stop!" Will said with joy.

"And there's food! Hamburger!" Clarisse clapped her hands together with a grin.

Aria frowned. She had food with her. Had they forgotten it already?

As her friends walked in the direction of the rest stop Aria felt herself frowning more. There was something wrong with that place…

"Hey guys –"

They ignored her in favor of the rest stop, Aria and Silena were the only ones not excited to see it.

It wasn't even a true fast food place; it was one of those restaurants you could find on the open road. It looked like it also sold those lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary and the neon sign above the gate was impossible for normal demigods to read because if there's anything worse for their dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English. Cursive was like a monster and torture to any demigod (Maybe it was why Dionysus liked to use it so much).

While Aria could read it because of Kurama, her friends couldn't. For example; to Clarisse, Will and Silena it was written: _ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM_. To Leo, on other hand, it looked like a really cool child drawing or secret code that he wanted to decipher.

Seeing the expression on their faces, Aria smiled feeling amused and grateful that she didn't have the same problem as theirs (Well, she did, but it wasn't so bad). "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium." They looked at her. "It's what is written there."

They nodded and turned their attention back to the rest stop.

Silena really wanted to smash the gnomes in the entrance, they were ugly bearded little runts, smiling and were waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken. They were creep.

She stared at the gnomes before Aria placed a hand in her shoulder. As she looked at the petite girl, Silena smiled knowing that she wasn't the only one that felt like something was wrong with that place.

She just hopped nothing was going to happen.

"Hey, girls, come on!" They heard Will yell and quickly crossed the street, walking to the others.

The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes. Aria narrowed her eyes as they stopped at the warehouse door. She stared at the cement satyr.

He looked a little like Grover…

"This isn't right. I think we should go." Silena nodded her head at this.

"I second that. Please, I don't want to stay here any longer…"

Clarisse was ready to say something when the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern woman – or so Aria thought since the woman was wearing a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled –. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all anyone could make out.

Aria narrowed her eyes even further. She grimaced when she recognized a really familiar and disgusting scent.

**We just found Orochimaru long lost mother. **Kurama stated with as much as disgust as she was feeling.

_Yes…_

He hummed. **What now?**

_We can't run… _She took a deep breath. _We'll have to wait and see what'll happen… If needed, we fight._

"Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?" Like with her appearance, her accent too sounded vaguely Middle Eastern.

"We're... um..." Will started to say, trying to think of something.

"We're lost," Aria said interrupting her friend who sent a grateful smile at her.

"Lost?" The woman asked.

"Oh yeah…" Leo nodded and sniffed looking like he was ready to cry.

Clarisse crossed her arms and shook her head sadly, playing along. "We're all cousins you see. And Aria's uncle –" She pointed to Aria who waved with an expression that would break the heart of anyone. "– _asked _us –" Everyone snorted in their minds. "To find something he lost and see if Aria other uncle has it with him."

'Which he doesn't…'Aria wanted to say. But she stayed quiet.

Will, not wanting to stay out of the show, started sobbing and hugged Leo. The two were trembling and crying together.

Silena raised an eyebrow impressed. Now, _this_ was act worthy of an Oscar. If she hadn't known them all before, she would have believed them.

"W-We lost our way –" Leo nodded at Will words.

"And we can't continue without energy so… Is that food I smell, lady?" Silena shook her head while Aria chuckled. Will wasn't looking sad as he finished talking. Actually, it was like his little scene never happened.

"Oh, my dears," The woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em."

Silena repeated the name in her head for a while before she gripped Aria arm and looked at the kunoichi who nodded at her silent question. The daughter of Aphrodite paled and took a deep breath, trying to not show the panic that was rising inside her.

"Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area." Will smiled while Clarisse and Leo grinned. The three demigods thanked her and went in.

Silena and Aria looked at each other and shook their heads.

It was too late to go back now.

The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. Aria was twitching, trying to hide her disgust. The smell was starting to get insupportable and Kurama instincts were starting to affect her. All she wanted was to rip that woman apart and make so she wouldn't have to be in the same presence of someone who made her think of Orochimaru. But her friends were hungry and tired, and even if she didn't like it, this place was just convenient.

**Too convenient…** Kurama muttered.

Aria hummed in agreement and tapped Silena shoulder making the girl look at her. The older girl stared at her for a moment before nodding her head in acceptance.

They wouldn't do anything for a while. It would be better to play along, the last thing they wanted, was their friends doing something stupid because fear or anything similar.

As soon as they walked in the back of the place, they noticed a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.

"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.

"With pleasure," Will said, nodding his head with a grin.

"Excuse me… Maybe we should go. After all, we don't have money..." Silena said. The other three looked at her as if she was crazy. They knew that Aria had enough money with her.

Aunty Em smiled and said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice children."

"Thank you, ma'am…" Aria muttered with narrowed eyes.

Aunty Em turned her attention to her. She stared at Aria's eyes and a creep smile found it way to her face. To Aria, it looked like the woman had just won the lottery. And if the woman was who she thought it was and if the story was right, then Aunty Em really thought she had just won the lottery.

_Remind me to talk with my father about his choicesof girlfriends… _Kurama nodded in her mind.

"Quite all right, Ariadnê dear…" She said. "You have such beautiful sea-green eyes, honey… So beautiful…"

Clarisse and Will tensed and narrowed their eyes a little. None of them introduced themselves.

Their hostess smiled at Aria and disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before they knew it, she'd brought them plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries. In little time at all they started chowing down –even Silena and Aria –. Though, the only reason Silena started drinking her shake was because Aria took one for herself.

Aria was finishing her shake (She really wished a bowl of ramen at the moment) when she heard hissing sounds. They were starting to get louder and louder, as if excitated about something.

_Snakes… _Aria thought, her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. _It is always snakes. Orochimaru is a snake; Voldemort is a snake, that guy from Dragon Ball looks like a snake and now this…?!_

Aunty Em, Aria noted, ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched the four children eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at you when you couldn't see her face; it was, in lack of words, creepy and Aria was starting to believe that yes, Aunty Em was Orochimaru long lost mother.

"So, Aunty Em, you sell gnomes," Leo said.

Aria almost facepalmed while the others looked like they just wanted to bang their heads against the table.

"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."

"A lot of business on this road?"

"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."

As Leo and Aunty Em talked, Aria looked atound, trying to see if she could find something that would be useful against Orochimaru's mother. Though, she endded staring at the statue of a young girl with an eater basket looking at her with a look of terror in her face.

Aria shivered. She really didn't want to end like that.

"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly when she noticed Aria looking at the statue. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."

"You make these statues yourself?" Leo asked hesitant and Aria could almost see his brain working in a incrible speed. She sighed a little relieved. It seemed he had finally understood who was sitting with them.

"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that you couldn't help feeling sorry for her, but that also made her more dangerous.

"Two... sisters?" Leo asked. Aria saw a flash of horror in his eyes.

"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Aria, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend," Aria grimanced. She was really going to talk to her father about his choices of girlfriends. "you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."

"Beautiful story, Aunty Em..." No it wasn't. "But I think we should go. We still have a long way to my Uncle house." Her friends nodded at such speed and with so much force that Aria almost thought their heads would fall from their necks at any moment.

Aunty Em ignored her. "You know... You have such beautiful eyes, Ariadnê my dear." Aunty Em told Aria again. The kunoichi in question was starting to get green at the way the woman was looking at her. Now she knew where Orochimaru got his pedophile ways. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen eyes like those..."

She reached out as if to stroke Aria's cheek, but hissed in pain when her fingers made contact with the girl's skin as if she had just been burned. Aria stood up as if nothing had happened while thaking Kurama in her mind. The last thing she wanted was her father ex-girlfriend touching her.

"We really should go, sorry."

"Yes!" Silena almost jumped from her seat. "Aria's Uncle is a important man, we don't want to let him waiting."

"Oh, yes! We don't want to make him angry!" Clarisse said grabbing Will and Leo arms and getting up as well.

"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" Silena asked almost whimpering in fear.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

Silena gulped and shook her head as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on Guys —"

"Oh, no! I insist!"

Aria closed her eyes for a moment. She just wanted to get the hell out of that place and reach her Uncle Hades's home. Now, how do you even kill someone like Medusa? Aria looked at her feet in thought, frowning as she tried to think.

**Mirrors.**

Aria blinked and grinned. _Perfect!_

After what - to her - seemed to be hours (though had only passed seconds), Aria and Kurama finished creating a plan to kill Medusa and the green eyed girl turned her attention to her father ex-girlfriend (Aria really hated to think that the woman one day touched her father or that he touched her... It was just disgusting) and smiled.

"Sure! Let's take a photography!"

Her friends were ready to complain, but a quick hand sign and a raised eyebrow stopped them. Aria was realieved and really happy when they just nodded their heads.

Aunty Em nodded happily and directed them to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. Ariadnê in the middle and the other two young ladies on her either side and the boys around them."

"Not much light for a photo," Aria muttered making a few hands signs as Kurama was repeating their plan in her head so she wouldn't forget anything.

"Oh," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"

"Where's your camera?" Leo asked.

Aunty Em ignored him and stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"

Will glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "Doesn't he look just like Grover?"

"William," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."

She still had no camera in her hands. Not that they thought she would even use one.

The woman smiled behind her veil. "Now give me a big smile!"

Aria placed one of her hands over her chest and smirked as she did a few hand signs. The woman ignored it and removed the veil. Clarisse, Will and Leo closed their eyes while Silena placed her hands over her face. They stayed like even after hearing Aria' voice.

"_Demoniac Mirroring Ice Crystal!_" There was a scream and the sound of ice cracking and then they heard a sickening _shlock!_, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern—the sound of a monster disintegrating.

Something heavy fell to the ground and they opened their eyes to see Aria sitting in the ground behind a mirror made of ice that was starting to melt. Silena took a deep breath and fell to the ground Clarisse who muttering curses under her breathe. Will walked over Aria and knelt next to her, asking her if she was alright.

"I can't believe it worked!..." Aria laughed.

"Aria, you're full of superpowers." Leo said as he looked at her clone. The ice had melted and now they could see Aria's clone holding Riptide in one hand and Medusa head wrapped in black cloth in the other. He grimaced when he noted that the head was dripping green juice.

Aria smiled. "I'm just happy Mei thaugh me how to do this..." She muttered to herself with a gently smile in her face.

"So hum... Why didn't the head evaporate?" Leo asked curious.

"It become a spoil of war," Clarisse said. "Same as Aria's minotaur horn. Oh, and don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."

Aria looked at her before a smirk appeared in her face.

"Oh? Really?" Before they could ask why she was so happy, Aria bit her tumb and made a few hand signs before hitting her handd on the ground. "_Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_"

There was a poof of smoke and when it cleaned, they could see a small, red, serpentine Chinese dragon. He had spindly limbs, two-toed feet, and four-fingered hands. His claws were dark red, as is a small tuft on the tip of his tail. His belly and two whiskers were yellow-orange. His eyes were large, close set, and appeared to be a very dark shade of brown. His teeth were sharp and white, and his floppy ears had dark red tips. The bottoms of his feet and the inside of his ears were pink.

"Is me!" The Dragon yelled, throwing his arms in the air. "The awesome! The powerful! The most loved Dragon -"

"Mushu." Clarisse deadpanned.

"Is he real?" Will askd in awe. He didn't even try to ask Aria how she had done that since he knew she wasn't going to awnser. "As in the Mushu from Mulan?"

Mushu grinned and puffed his chest proundly.

"Yeah! It is me! I knew the guy who made Mulan and he saw how incrible I'm and made one of the caracheters based on me." Aria rolled her eyes.

If she knew him as much as she thought, then Mushu had more likely visited the man in his sleep and convinced the man to create a character based on him.

"Stop touching me brat!" She heard Mushu yelling. Aria smiled when she saw Leo pocking the dragon with a big smile in his face. Her friend smeed fascinated with Mushu.

"Mushu." He looked at Aria and saluted. "I need you to take something for me to the Temple. Can you do it?" He nodded. "Good. Take it to Arashi-sama and tell him that he can do whatever he want with it. But he owns me one."

Having one of the Elders owening her was going to be good! Aria thought with a grin.

"Leave it with me, boss!"

Aria clone had found a plastic bag where she double wrapped Medusa's head in it. After that, the clone sealed the head and gave the scroll to Mushu who was happy to know that he wouldn't have to touch te decapitated head. The Dragon grinned and waved to Aria and her friends before disapearing in a poof of smoke.

Aria turned to her friends.

"Where to now?"

**00**

Aria had stop herself from groaning when she noticed that she was near black pit. She looked around for a second and closed her eyes, looking for Kurama presence. As she found the fox in the back of her mind, she folded her arms, opening her eyes as she waited to see what this dream was about.

She looked around before she saw creatures made of gray mist that churned all around her, whispering rags of smoke that they somehow knew were the spirits of the dead. Those creatures tugged on her clothes. Aria had tried to resist, she fought with all strength she could use, but she felt the pull coming from the pit of darkness and walked in it direction. Aria hummed as she looked down. It was bottomless.

**Is him again. **Aria heard Kurama growl. By the corner of her eyes, Aria could see Kurama cage appearing behind her.

Aria narrowed her eyed.

_**"Little heroine..." **_**The same voice from before echoed in the darkness.**

_Kurama... _She didn't need to finish. She wanted that thing out of her mind and Kurama knew it.

**Wait a little more.**

_**"Too weak, too young..."**_

Aria shook her head, she didn't even stop to hear what more the voice was saying. It was something about someone misleding her and the he would give her what she wanted. Truly, Aria didn't know, she really wasn't paying attention.

Then, the green eyed-girl blinked when a shimmering image hovered over the void: It was her mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at Aria, pleading: _Go! _

Aria had really wanted to do something. To move or cry for her mother, but she knew it was just a ilusion. The owner of the voice was trying to use her mother against her. But Aria was a shinobi. She had a mission to complete and she would do it. Even... Even if it meant that she would lose her mother... Because if losing one life meant she could save a hundred or thousand, than she would do it.

Aria closed her eyes, taking a deep breathe as she tried to not think about her mother at the moment. It would just distract her.

The image then disappeared as a cold laughter echoed from the chasm. An invisible force pulled her again, like it would drag her into the pit, if that did not hold her ground. One of Kurama tails made sure that Aria stayed wherte she was and the girl was grateful for having the fox there.

_**"Help me rise, little heroine."**_The voice became hungrier. _**"Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods"**_

That invisible force pulled once more, and Kurama roared making her eyes snap open.

Aria sighed when she saw that she was inside the improvised tent she had created with a few Earth Justus.

_Thank you Kurama..._

Kurama sighed. **You're welcome, kit... **He growled. **I need to make sure no one else have acess to your mind, this is ridiculous.**

Aria hummed and looked around with a sigh.

The only place her and her friends had found to camp was in the woods, specifically in a clearer where the local kids had used for their parties – the ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers -. If Grover had come with them, Aria was certain he would have a heart attack or made a trantum.

Fortunately, Leo and Aria joined forces and, in the end, the two of them made a small Cabin that was confortable enough for all of them. It hadn't fornitune or anything, but inside was warm and they could rest without worrying about monsters since Aria had placed a barrier around the Cabin. How those two had made a Cabin and how Aria could create barries, their friends didn't know and they weren't asking.

Aria walked out of the Cabin after stretching a little. She looked around to see if she could findo ne of her friends and found Silena sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in her lap. It was dirty, unnaturally pink and had a...

Aria paled.

_No! Tell me this isn't what I think it is!_

**If you are asking if the dog has a ribbon around her neck... **Kurama made a pausa and closed his eyes. **Than yes... **He sighed, ready for the outburst.

_NO! THE DEVIL FOLLOWED ME EVEN IN DEATH!_

The poodle yapped at Aria who narrowed her eyes at it.

"What's wrong Ari? Are you alright?" Silena asked.

"What's this thing doing here?!" Asked Aria in horror.

Silena blinked. "You don't like dogs Aria?"

"I do like dogs... But _this_ –" She pointed to the poodle who growled."- isn't a dog! It is... It is _Tora_ in dog form!"

"Who?" Will asked as he walked in their direction. He had one of the clones Aria had created the previous day to protect their Cabin. Her barriers weren't indestructible after all.

The clone took one look at the poodle before backing away in horror. "Is _Tora_ in dog form! Run before it comes after you!"

"Really, Aria!" Silena said, exasperated. "Who's Tora?"

"The Demon Cat." Both Aria and Clone replied. "Tora had a ribbon in her neck too."

Will facepalmed. "You can insult the Gods without fear, but you can't even look at a dog because it makes you think of a cat?"

"Is not just a cat! Is _the_ demon cat!"

"What's this about a demon?" Clarisse asked as she walked from the woods with Leo following her.

"Aria is afraid of cats." Will and Silena said with deadpanned expressions.

Aria shook her head. "I'm not!" She took a deepbreath and crossed her arms, not wanting to talk about Tora anymore. "So, what you guys had been doing?"

Clarisse pointed downhill, toward train tracks Aria hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. Leo found out that the westbound train leaves at noon."

"Perfect! Let's go!" Aria made a pause and looked at the poodle. "That thing won't be coming with us."

Her friends looked at each other before Leo grinned.

"Who would have thought... Aria is truly afraid of cats."

"I'M NOT!"

**00**

Before they had gone to the train station, Silena made Aria sent clones around so they could find the poodle's owner. The green eyed girl hadn't been too happy but did what her friend wanted. It was better than having the dog traveling with them (That and they received a reward for the dog!).

Their train jorney had been long. The group spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through the hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain. They weren't attacked once, but they didn't relax. They still kept their guard up just in case. At some point, Aria used the technique called Henge to change her appearence because her name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers.

On the way to their destination, Leo was pointing to anything interesting he saw from the window. The boy had spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. Another time, the son of Hephaestus saw something huge moving through the woods. It was a lion, he told Aria who had been confused by this. She was sure lions didn't live wild in America, and there was no such thing as a lion with the size of a Hummer in this dimension. Especially with fur glinted gold in the evening light.

Toward the end of the second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, they passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Aria was excitated. She had never gone to far from Montauk or New York, so she was happy to see all of that.

When they pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told them they had a three-hour layover before departing for Denver. Aria was grinning like a little kid along with Leo. The two of them were more than happy to get out of the train for a while.

"Let's go sight-seeing." Will said. "There's nothing to do and we can go see the Gateway Arch." He shuggred when Clarisse grimaced.

"Do I look like a owl lover to you?"

"Do you have a better idea?" She closed her mouth.

"Exactly." He looked at the other three for confirmation.

"Sure." Silena said while Aria nodded.

"I don't care." Leo said. "I just need to get out of here."

The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. They threaded way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. Leo was looking around.

He grimaced. "Ari, do you smell anything or I'm going crazy?"

Aria sniffed. "It is death..." She frowned. "Maybe it is because we're getting close to Uncle Hades dominion."

"Aria! We're in a public place...!" Silena said in a rushed tone.

Aria raised a eyebrow. "He's my Uncle, I'll call him that and I will say his name."

Silena lowered her head in defeat. "Should have know you were going to say this."

When they had to get into the small car that would send them up the Arc, Clarisse called their attention by waving her hand infront of them. They got shoehorned into the car with a big fat (and suspicious) lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. Aria tensed the moment she saw the lady. The aura around both her and the Chihuahua were Strong, too Strong for a human and her pet.

_Monsters...!_

Will was the first to notice how tense she was and understood why. He looked around and sighed. There was light enough for him to use in case they were attacked. Leo, was glaring at the Chihuahua. Like with Aria who thinks that any small animal wearing a ribbon is evil, Leo never liked Chihuahuas. Those disgusting creatures.

"No parents?" The fat lady asked them when they were inside the elevator.

If he appearance wasn't enough to confirm to Will and Aria (and Clarisse and Silena who started to catch up with their friends) that the lady was a monster, they didn't know what more could confirm it. The lady had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.

"They're below..." Aria told her, though the girl really wanted to know why she was wasting her time with this. Is not like this would change anything. "Scared of heights."

"Oh, the poor darlings." The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.

Aria placed a hand over Leo's mouth before he said something that would make the lady angry (The boy was ready to make a joke, she was sure of it). The last thing she wanted was to have to fight in a elevator. She could survive, the others won't.

Leo glared at her, but one look from Aria and a few hand signs he finally understood. His eyes widened and he nodded. Aria took her hand from his mouth and turned her attention back to the lady.

Silena shifted a little. "Sonny... Is... that his name?"

"No," the lady told the daughter of Aphrodite. She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.

"Oh..."

At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded them of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay to Aria, but she wasn't too happy to know that if they needed, her and her friends couldn't run away.

When the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes, they steered toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and Aria was about to get in herself when she realized there were already two other tourists inside. There was no room for her or Leo who was standing beside her.

"Next car, kids." The park ranger said.

Aria looked around. The only ones with her were Leo, a little boy with his parentes, the park ranger, and the fat lady (aka. Monster).

"We'll stay here with you -" Leo waved Will off.

"Nah! It's okay. We'll see you guys at the bottom. And if anything happens, Aria and I can take care of it! Right, Ari?" Aria smiled and shuggred.

"Sure."

Will and Silena both looked nervous and Clarisse tried to protest, but the elevator door slide shut before she could say or do anything. Their car disappeared down the ramp.

The Chihuahua jumped down from the lady's arms and started yapping at them.

"Not now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."

"Look, look, a doggie!" the little boy shouted while his parent pulled him back.

The Chihuahua bared his teeth at the two friends who weren't looking very impressed with him, though Aria was already read to act if needed.

"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."

"Son? Did she just call this thing _son_?" Lao asked incredulous. The lady, who had heard him, nodded.

"_Chimera_, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."

Aria cursed. She had read about her. "_Echidna_."

The fat woman rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, they saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's.

_Snakes! _Aria yelled in her mind.

Kurama sweetdropped. **You don't know if she is truly a snake.** He was ignored.

_Again with the snakes?! This one could be Orochimaru twin sister! ARGH! IS ALL MONSTERS HERE RELATED TO OROCHIMARU?!_

The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar. It was now so tall it back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: _CHIMERA—RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS—IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS—EXT. 954. _

The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monsters.

Aria created a clone who uncapped Riptide and gave Leo a sword she had sealed (She didn't even know it was there).

"Call _Tartarus_?" Leo muttered as they backed a way from the duo. "There's a way to _call Tartarus_?"

"You learn something new everyday." Aria grumped.

The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Aria Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"

"Uncle Zeus gave a monster the Ok to kill me! This is just _perfect_!" She rolled her eyes. "Did you forget that if I die no else can get your toy of mass destruction back? Aunt Hestia is going to kill me for this, but... Are you retarded or what, Uncle?!" She looked at the sky with a deadpanned expression and thunder boomed. "Oh, shut up you big baby!"

Leo looked at the sky with amusement before turning his attention to Aria.

"Hey, Ari... Isn't Echidna a kind of anteater?"

Aria blinked and tilted her head. "Now that you mentioned it, Leo... I think it is. Do you think our friend here likes ants and termites too?" They grinned and fist bumped when the snake lafy growled.

Echidna howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I _hate_ it when people say that! I _hate_ Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, my son shall destroy you two!"

The Chimera charge with its Lion teeth gnashing making Aria jump, holding Leo. The problem was that the boy moved and made her let him go. To her amusement, he fell on the Chimera and was riding the monster as if it was a mechanical bull or something.

Aria clapped with a grin. "I didn't know you were a cowboy, Leo."

"I came from -" He gasped holding the fur with more strength so he won't fall. " - Texas...! Is in my blood!"

Aria laughed and turned her attention to Echidna, placing herself in front of the monster who was ready to help her son.

"Is just you and me lady."

"ARIA, _AYUDAME_!"

Aria rolled her eyes with a smile. She looked at Echidna who couldn't believe at how the daughter of Poseidon was acting. "One second please." Aria created two clones sending them to help Leo and looked at Echidna again. "What were we doing? Ah, yes! Come on Lady!"

Echidna tried to attack her, but it just gave Aria a chance to use the Shunshin to appear behind the monster. She was ready to swing her sword, but was distracted by explosion, turning her head to see a hole in the Arc that must have been made by Leo and the Chimera. Echidna took advantage of this and caught her hand, throwing her out in the hole in the Arc, down toward the Missippi River.

Aria had left Riptide go, which was taken by one of the clones she had created early. Echidna didn't have the chance to defend herself as the clone stabbed her.

Meanwhile, Aria was calm as no one in her place would be. "What do they say in times like this?" Aria closed muttered as she saw the river getting closer. "Ah, yes. _GERONIMO_!"

**00**

Leo was having his fun acting like a cowboy till the Chimera threw him in the air. The only reason he hadn't turned into pancake against the floor was because two of Aria's clones saved him (Leo was glad that he thought of calling for help). One of the clones turned away and run in direction of where Aria and the snake lady were fighting the moment his feet touched the floor.

The clone (or Cloria, as he decided to call it) pushed him away from a column of flames that came straight at him. After a explosion, he looked at the Arc and grimaced when he saw the hole the flames had created.

"_That_ could have been me." Cloria nodded.

"A special BBQ made of Leo the demigod."

"Poor Chimera, would have gotten sick." Leo said with a grin.

They stared at each other before bumping their fits and laughing. They were interrupted by the Chimera who growled. It wasn't happy at being ignored.

"So... Any plan?"

Cloria shrugged. "Hell if I know. I can use water against it or even lava. To make lava, I need both earth and fire I have earth element because of my father, he is the god Earthquakes... So using water and earth is easy for me. But I'm just a clone and I'm not powerful enough to create fire because it isn't..." Cloria blinked slowly. "Fire isn't _my_ original element." She looked at Leo who started to get a little apprehensive. He didn't like that look in the clone's face or the glint in her eyes.

"W-What?"

"_Nothing_ ~" Cloria purred.

There was a roar and another column of flames, but this time, Cloria jumped away and threw Leo in front of the flames. The elf boy closed his eyes and placed his arms in front of face, waiting for his imminent death. But nothing happened. Actually, the flames were tickling him.

Leo blinked his eyes. "I'm alive."

Cloria appeared beside him, patting his shoulder. "Good! It worked! My theory was right."

Leo felt his eyebrown twiching. "Are you saying that you didn't know that it would happen? Are you trying to kill me! Are you crazy girl?!" He made a pause. "I would have done the same thing." Leo sighed, dreamy. "I knew you were made for me. Remind me of thanking Silena's mother."

Aria's clone tilted her head confused.

"Eh... Ok?" Cloria shook it head and pointed to the Chimera who was coming in their direction, ready to pounce. "Alright, the plan is like this... Is not really a plan. Just give me fire."

"Eh... How?"

"Think of something that makes you angry and then... Well, just use your instincts."

They nodded at each other and joined their hands, pointing them in direction of the Chimera. Leo thought about his mother death, his life till now, about what made him angry in his life. There was a rush of power in his veins and a vortex of fire apeared from his hand making grin in delight. After a second, his eye widened when he felt a foreign power mixing with his and his fire turned into lava. Leo watched in awe. The lava looked like it just came from a vulcan.

It was beautiful.

The Chimera roared in pain when the lava covered it like a blanket. The monster tried to escape but failed and when Leo blinked, the lava was already drying and the Chimera had been turned into a statue. A really _ugly_ statue.

"We work well together." Leo said after Cloria punched the statue, destroying it. He placed a arm around her shoulders as they turned around, ready to find Aria and the others.

"Yep." Aria's Clone grinned. "A duo full of awesomeness."

**00**

Aria saw the river racing toward her at the speed of a truck. She felt the wind ripped the breath from her lungs, it was a sensation familiar to the one she felt when Jiraya threw her out of the cliff when he was trying to teach her (If could even call that teaching). Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of her vision.

_**Flaaa-boooom!**_

A white out of bubbles and she sank through the murk. Aria closed her eyes in contentment. She loved the water and she felt safe because she knew her father would not let anything hurt her there. She hoped he would protect her... He was her father.

**But you don't know him enough to know if will treat you like you deserves. **Kurama said, making her frown.

Aria shook her head. Her impact with the water hadn't hurt and she was falling slowly, bubbles trickling up through her fingers. She sighed as she settled on the river bottom soundlessly. Aria grimaced, as she looked around. She could see clouds of silt and disgusting garbage (beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags) swirled up all around her. Then, after a few moments, she noticed that she wasn't wet and she could feel the coolness of the water (This was something she hadn't noticed before, how curious).

Being Poseidon's daughter has it advantages. Kurama said.

Aria nodded thinking that he was talking about the fact tha she was breathing.

Aria looked around again and smiled. "Thank you, dad."

**Why are you thanking him? **Kurama muttered. He won't answer.

Aria was ready to yell at him when she heard a woman's voice. 'Aria, Your father believes in you.' The woman words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.

"Where are you? Who are you?" Aria asked, looking for the woman.

Then, through the gloom, Aria saw her, a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above his sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like hers.

"Hi, er... Are you my relative or something?"

Kurama groaned and muttered something about her being obsessed with her family and people that she never saw in her life.

'No, child, only a messenger.' Aria nodded. 'Go to the beach in Santa Monica.'

"What?"

'It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Aria, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.'

"But -"

'I cannot stay, brave one,' the woman said. She reached out, and Aria felt the current brush her face like a caress. 'You must go to Santa Monica! And Aria, do not trust the gifts...' Her voice faded.

_Gifts? _Aria blinked. _Like the shoes Luke gave to me? Ha! I knew he was traitor!_

The woman made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away.

Aria stared at nothing for a while before smiling.

_He does care, Kurama. _The fox rolled his eyes. He doubted it.

**Working Together**

**I had wanted to place the part with Nico and Bianca here, but I decided to place it in the next chapter, sorry.**

**Hope you have liked it and thank you for taking your time to read it. **

**Please, let your review, Follow/Favorite or sent me a PM.**

**- Cissnei.**


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